Bathroom Quadrafecta

Making the decision to head back to Peru was one of the most difficult
decisions on the trip. We absolutely loved Chile, but knew that Peru
was where we were supposed to be.

The city of Arequipa, Peru turned out to be one of the nicest places
we've been on the entire city. Nicknamed "The White City," Arequipa
was built almost entirely of white volcanic rock from an eruption 1500
years ago. It's Peru's second largest city and it's a gem.

We headed to a Nazarene church on Sunday morning and met with some
great missionaries for lunch afterwards. We were really hoping to
build another house or an addition or something, but no doors seemed
to open up.

After lunch we met back up with the pastor of the Nazarene church and
talked to them about their needs. They were in the middle of a pretty
big building project, but they had stalled at getting their electrical
work done. For 13 months the bulk of the church has been without
electricity because they didn't have anyone who was able to do the
work. We decided to tackle the job not knowing what we were in for.

We bought a few more electrical tools and showed up on Monday to work.
For those of you who don't do wiring, there are empty pipes put in the
walls and floors for pulling the wires through. Within 5 minutes of
showing up at the church, I tried to do a few test runs of putting
wires in the pipes and the first 5 pipes were all blocked. I almost
just packed up our stuff and left.

Wires don't make tight turns very well. Instead of sharp 90 degree
turns, you're supposed to make big sweeping bends so the wires can
just glide through the pipes. Because they made all sharp turns, we
basically had to rip up their concrete floors with hammers and
chisels.

Not very fun, but I work with some of the best guys in the world who
didn't know enough about electricity to know how miserable that job
could be, so we pressed on and got it done in 3 long days. We pulled
thousands of feet of wire, hooked up ceiling lights, wall sconces, put
in emergency lighting, and installed dozens of outlets. When all was
said and done, it turned out to be a cool good deed.

Now we've started our journey back to Lima. We decided to splurge a
little and see what a real first class bus is like. Oh. My. Goodness.
First of all, instead of sitting in the terminal with the other
people, we had a special lounge. This lounge had the first quadrafecta
public bathroom of the ENTIRE trip. "What is a quadrafecta bathroom?"
you ask. It had a toilet seat, toilet paper, soap, and paper towels.
Uh-mazing.

We get on the bus and we're treated to legit blankets and pillows and
free headphones. Why headphones? They don't play the movies and music
on the bus speakers. I shed a little tear. Plus, we have wifi!!!

Speaking of movies, we have gone through a little ritual a lot lately.
Whenever we turn on the tv and see something we really like, it is
always at a part with no talking for like 5 minutes. We sit there and
watch it only to hear them begin to speak Spanish. That's usually
followed by Jordan, Cory, and I shouting some term of displeasure. At
least this bus has movies with English subtitles. Even when you
understand it, it's no fun watching tv in Spanish. One other funny
thing is that I had shrunk down some tv shows to watch on the
blackberry. Elias and I were watching, but the audio had gotten out of
sync with the mouths and that was driving me crazy. It didn't bother
Elias and then I figured out why. Most of the tv he watches is
English dubbed in Spanish so the mouths never line up. Haha.

I'm getting pretty retrospective as the trip comes to an end, so I
decided to make some lists about the trip. So here they are in no
particular order.

Things I wouldn't change:
- The guys on this trip. Sure, there are a few additional people I
wish could have come, but I wouldn't trade these guys for anyone or
anything. They have been so easy to travel with and so great at
keeping on mission. They're amazing guys--but you already knew that.

- The trip itself. So many people told me to just pick one country or
one missions organization and explore that. If we had limited
ourselves to just people an organizations that we could have
researched from the US, we would have missed out on 90% of the great
experiences and ministry opportunities we had on this trip.

- My backpack - A surprise gift from Keri, my Kelty backpack has
performed flawlessly on this trip. It's been in some of the nastiest
bus luggage compartments known to man with nary a thread out of place.
It pained all of us when the all of the bus companies in Peru STAPLED
our luggage tags to the straps, but we survived. Actually, all of the
backpacks held up well from Cory's Northface to the $70 Coleman 65
liter bags Elias and Jordan got from Walmart. In fact, if you plan to
do some hiking and don't want to spend a lot, I'd suggest you go grab
a Walmart bag before they run out.

- Space Bags. The peanut butter in the Reese's cup that is my luggage.
I'm not talking about the ones you vacuum out, they are the ones that
you roll the air out. These bags have survived daily use on my 2 bike
trips and other various packing duties before this trip. They not only
save space, but keep nasty dirty clothes separate from the clean
stuff.

- Taking buses instead of driving. Driving probably would have been a
tiny bit cheaper and a ton more flexible and possibly more comfortable
for all but the driver, but buses were the way to go. We never got
lost, we were able to travel overnight, we never got hit up for a
single bribe, and to be honest, the roads down here are a nightmare.
We made the right decision.

- Skipping El Salvador and Northern Peru. Those were two places that
we definitely had no business being. Southern Peru is gorgeous and
much safer though.

Things I would do differently.
- I would have brought better clothes. The 3 pairs of Eddie Bauer
convertible shorts/pants were a lifesaver on this trip and at $25 were
probably the most expensive pants I've bought in 10 years, but I still
wish I would have gotten some higher end ones. I really didn't like
them as shorts and because they were on clearance, I had to go with
sizes that worked but weren't perfect. Considering that I wore these
about 75% of the trip, it would have been worth it to spend $75 on
pants I loved. I also would have brought a really nice sweatshirt.

- I would have spent more time in Guatemala. As the trip went on, we
learned how to find opportunities, but I wished that we would have
spent more time exploring opportunities there in the beginning. I
definitely want to go back. The same goes for Columbia. I know a lot
of people were worried about us being there, but Bogota actually felt
like one of the safest capital cities on the trip.

- I would ignore the missions advice I got at my expensive private
university. I was told over and over again that when you are a guest
of someone on the mission field and they put food before you, you
should eat it so you don't offend them. Screw that. That's just
stupid. There has to be some way to explain to people that I'm a sissy
American and my stomach can't handle your food. If I've traveled 8,000
miles and I've built you a house or done electrical work for you, I
think I've earned the right to not eat your food. If you're offended,
I'm sorry.

- I would bring an ebook reader (i.e. a Kindle). Good English reading
material is hard to find and I didn't think about bringing an e-reader
until last minute. By then, the 2 I wanted were out of stock. I wound
up buying 5 or 6 magazines from 2008-2009 for $1 each in Columbia.
That was nice, but the ebook reader would have been better.

- For a group of 4 people, it would have been well worth it to bribe
the bus driver $20 to keep the radio and tv off.

Other Random Thoughts
- I don't miss my material possessions. I woke up yesterday thinking
about this. Everything I've needed for the last 2 months has had to
fit in my backpack. I love my tv and my computer and these projects
would have been a ton easier if I had my tools, but these things
aren't the necessities that I once thought they were. I don't see
myself selling all of my stuff when I get back, but it's nice to know
I can live without it.

- Can you believe that I haven't driven a car or ridden a bike in 60 days?

Favorite Countries (I'm referring to the country itself, not
necessarily the people:
1. Ecuador
2. Colombia
3. Costa Rica
4. Arequipa, Peru
5. Chile
6. Guatemala
7. Panama
8. Honduras
9. Nicaragua
10. The rest of Peru
11. El Salvador.

Most beautiful sights.
1. The Sacred Valley in Peru
2. The mountains of Ecuador
3. The drive through Costa Rica
4. The drive leaving Guatemala
5. The McDonald's sign in Arica, Chile

I know the trip isn't over yet, but I wanted to take a moment to thank
all of you who have been following the blog and have been praying for
us and supporting this trip. It absolutely means the world to me.

Dichotomy

I've spent a lot of time in my blog poking fun at the ridiculousness
that is Central and South America. To someone raised in middle class
America, the rest of the world is a crazy place... but maybe I'm the
odd one.

Less than 2% of the people in the world own a car and yet I usually
own 2 or 3 by myself. Nearly a billion people will go to bed hungry
tonight and about the same number don't have access to clean water,
yet we in America have plenty of both. I don't think that we should
feel guilty about this, but this trip has been a constant reminder
that OUR world is not THE world.

So what about all the whining about bus drivers and onions in my
pizza? Let's just say that my worst day in South America is better
than my best day plumbing a house in America. This is an amazing
place.

Make no mistake, I believe that I live in the greatest country on the
face of the earth. Through none of my own doing and simply luck of
the draw I was born an American. As I talk to people down here, I
don't think the average person has any concept of how much they've
been given from our country. When I was sick I was able to go to the
doctor and practically be given medicines that were developed in the
US and that I still would have to pay a fortune for in the US.

People everywhere have been extremely nice to us personally, it's just
really hard for me to hear people say that America is selfish when I
know that money gets taken out of my paychecks and sent to rebuild
Pisco. Maybe that's how God feels when I complain about onions in my
pizza :)

Update: We are in way southern Peru again. We struck out on
opportunities in Chile and rather than have to go farther south only
to come north again for our flight home, we headed to Arequipa.
Tomorrow we are starting the monsterous task of wiring a big Nazarene
church. They've had their building completed for a while, but didn't
have anyone capable of wiring it. I'm hoping me and my 3 newly
christened electrician friends can do the bulk of it in 3 days, but we
could use your prayers. It's big and it's complicated.

Blur

It turns out Machu Piccu is a pretty difficult place to get to. You
would think that one of the biggest tourist attractions on the
continent would have a little easier access, but it takes several
buses, taxi rides, and a train to get there.

After a long bus ride to Cusco, we decided to just go ahead and take a
taxi to the Sacred Valley, which is the jumping off point to MP.
Surrounded by mountains on all sides, this has to be the most gorgeous
small towns that I've ever seen.

That's pretty much the last thing I remember for about 24 hours. I was
just plain sick. I encouraged the guys to go on without me to Machu
Piccu. Maybe I'm just weird but I've never had any real interest to
visit there anyway. I definitely would have liked to go with the guys,
but there wasn't any way it was going to happen.

The next day I woke up still weak, but I was able to eat a pancake. We
hung around the town and watched some (ok, a ton) of tv and the guys
got in a pretty cool good deed. We decided to go out to dinner and I
was going to give pizza a shot because I figured it would be
predictable. I ordered a personal pepperoni pizza. When I got it, it
had peppers, onions, and mushrooms (3 things I DESPISE on pizza)
hidden under the cheese, which made it impossible to pick off. I
scraped the entire top of the pizza off and just ate crust. Having
only eaten 1 pancake and 1 tic tac in 48 hours, our waiter was lucky
he didn't ask how my food was. Of course, that's pretty much been the
story of South American food. You can be as broad as possible
("without vegetables") or as specific (listing every vegetable you
don't want on your food) and they're going to cram it in there anyway.
It's beyond just being picky about vegetables, though. The general
rule south of the border for Americans is "if you didn't wash it
yourself or you can't peel it, don't eat it."

So we took another long taxi ride back to Cusco, and found the only
bus leaving during the day to Chile. It was Ormeño. That's the company
that canceled our bus leaving Columbia and then was late the next day.
We weren't thrilled, but customer service outdid themselves this time.
Since it was our only option, I pulled out my credit card and got
ready to pay the bill. Despite at least 10 Visa and Mastercard signs,
we were informed "we don't take credit cards." Cory and I hit the ATM
and got some Soles. When we got our tickets, they were for a different
bus company. That's when we found out that Ormeño "doesn't go to
Chile." Nice. When we got on the bus, it was about 100 degrees. We
talked to the guy about it and we were told "we don't have air
conditioning" and "the windows don't open." It was a long night. I was
awake for pretty much the entire night. The smell of indigenous foot
cheese was unbearable. I tried tucking my nose in my shirt, putting my
pillow over my face and chewing "Menta Intensa" tic tacs, but nothing
helped. I almost stuck a tic tac up each nostril, but I thought that
might be going too far.

We arrived at a town close to the Chilean border where we got off the
bus and that's where we found out we had to take a taxi to another bus
terminal. We took 2 taxis with the other Americans we had met in Peru.
We were actually kind of embarrassed when our taxi filled with 5 men
pulled up to the second terminal blasting Justin Bieber. We don't pick
the music.

We arrived at terminal 2, but instead of a bus, Ormeño had setup for
us to actually finish the journey in a taxi. First class all the way.
Well, when I say us, I mean the 4 of us and a random Peruvian woman
carrying insane amounts of toilet paper and Inca Cola. 6 of us in a
1990s Crown Vic with all of our stuff. It's a beautiful thing.

The awesome news is that we are in Chile and it looks great. We almost
cried when we saw a billboard for a McDonald's. We haven't actually
seen said McD's, but it gives us hope that Chile's going to be a
magical place.

On the way to Machu Picchu

Peru has been a lot different than the other countries that we have
been to. We've heard a lot about the dangers in various parts of the
country and that's what actually led us to Pisco. It may be chaotic,
but it's a slower speed chaos. As opposed to the taxis and buses we
have been taking all over, Pisco is filled with tootoots. They are
enclosed vehicles where the driver sits in the front with a motorcycle
handlebar and 2 (or in our case 3) people cram in the back. There's
one wheel up front and 2 in the back.

Driving here is utter madness. There really aren't any rules. On a
road that we would consider as being one lane in each direction, they
easily drive 4 and 5 wide. One minute you're driving on the left, the
next you're on the right. There is constant honking and squeezing in
amazingly tight places. It's not really dangerous because you're
almost never above 15 mph, but it's still crazy. That's actually
another thing--since we arrived in Guatemala, we have been shocked
that we have never made body contact with another vehicle. That's
pretty incredible considering that there have been at least 10 times
we came within an inch. In fact, the only car accident we saw on the
trip was 2 days ago. The 4 of us had just driven in 2 tootoots. About
15 seconds after we got out of them they both slammed into each other
pretty good.

During our extreme makeover project I kept wishing that we could build
something bigger, but when we finished the build I realized that we
had done exactly what we were supposed to do. I feel that it was
definitely a hand up and not a hand out. A lot of people in Pisco sit
around and wait for people to give them something. This family was out
there working and just needed some help to get over the hump. Plus,
the girls who are ages 6, 8, and 10 were definitely old enough to get
their own room and old enough to appreciate it.

Oh and speaking of the Good Deeds Fund, when I started it I took a lot
of grief from individuals who didn't "get it.". I understand that
there is a lot of need in the US, but the GDF has added so much to
this trip. I wasn't sure if people would actually give to it in the
beginning, but you gave and gave and gave. I don't have the computer
in front of me, but you gave around $2,600 and we still have around
$900 to spend. There's more good stuff to come.

As I write this I am on a double decker bus. Jordan and I have the
worst two seats on the bus -- top level (second class) in the back
row. I've felt a little queasy (and I don't normally get motion
sickness), but as we've been weaving through the Peruvian Andes I'm
feeling a little sick. The girl in front of me was about to puke, but
I gave her a Dramamine and I think it kicked in just in time. That
wasn't a 100% selfless act. Someone threw up during our epic 36 hour
bus trip in a totally different compartment and it managed to run
under the door into my section. I'll pass out Dramamine to the whole
bus. Plus it knocked her out, so she's not reclining into our knees.

Extreme Makeover: Peruvian Home Edition

(This is a simulpost with the Good Deeds Blog...I will post another
blog with my thoughts ASAP)
Ok...so we're not exactly Tye and his crew, but we try. After
visiting some of the most devastated regions of Pisco, we quickly
figured out that we were not equipped to go into those areas and just
start building. We were pretty sure that we would have either been
mobbed or had our tools stolen.

We did, however, meet Jimmy. Jimmy was the man who sold us our tour to
the islands. He lived with his wife and 3 daughters in a single room.
One of the things that stuck out to us about Jimmy was that he was an
extremely hard worker. He would get up at 5am and drive his toot-toot
(a motorcycle-ish taxi vehicle). He would work in the tour company
from 10am to 5pm and then after eating dinner and putting the girls to
bed, he would go out and drive the toot toot again.

Thanks to the help of many donors, we were able to build them a
bathroom, a new kitchen, and renovate their back room so that for the
first time Jimmy and his wife had a room separate from their 3 girls.
We also built bunk beds (and bought mattresses and pillows) for the
girls. (The bunk bed had more wood than their entire house. The family
joked that if there was another earthquake, they were all getting in
the bunk bed!).

The opportunity to see the looks on the girls faces as they went into
their (still unpainted) room was absolutely priceless. They climbed
all over the beds and seemed so joyful to have a place that they could
call their own. We bought the girls pink paint so they could paint
everything. They will be sending pictures in a week or so.

It didn't seem right to build a kitchen and not fill it with food, so
we went to the grocery store and got all the food that the four of us
could carry. It was very cool. We bought everything from big
quantities of staples like rice and beans and milk and chicken to
luxuries such as cereal and cookies. Of all the gifts that were given
to this family, it was the food that made them cry.

The icing on the cake was meeting the people from Pisco sin Fronteras
(Pisco without Borders). It's an organization where 20 and 30
somethings from around the world come and donate their time and skills
to take on projects in the community. It was an amazing place. I wish
we could have done more with them. They have done so many cool things
with so few resources. We were able to donate the drill, circular
saw, jig saw, hammers, and all the hardware and other miscellaneous
tools that we had leftover from the project to them.

As a town, Pisco was far from our favorite, but the relationships we
built and the things that were accomplished in just a few short days
will stick with us forever. We also want to thank Jen, Amanda, the
Mackeys, Debby, Annie, Ruth, Rebecca, Sandy, Courtnay, Mary, and some
other people who gave anonymously for contributing towards this
project. Your donations had a huge impact on this family.

Devastation

We read in our guidebook that there was an 8.2 earthquake down here in
2007, but that really couldn't prepare us for what we saw once we got
here. When you go out on the roof of our 5 story hostel (the hotels
were the first buildings rebuilt in the area), it's nearly impossible
to see a building that doesn't still have damage 3 years later. 70%
of the homes in the area were completely destroyed.

While Pisco doesn't have the dark, dangerous feel of the northern
cities, it's pretty obvious that the people here are pretty beat up.
The US and other countries gave lots of money to help rebuild this
place, but most of it didn't make it to the actual people. Instead,
they've built homes out of bamboo and tarps and whatever scraps of
wood they can find. We're not talking about a few houses, we're
talking about thousands upon thousands of houses. No plumbing. No
running water. 35,000 families that used to have nice adobe homes now
live in plastic.

When we visited the villages, it became really obvious that we weren't
going to be able to provide even a drop in the bucket to help these
people. As we walked from house to house and heard the stories and
saw the homes, people began to argue with each other about who should
get our help. I felt so helpless to alleviate these people's
problems. In fact, the people were so desperate (although they
treated us kindness) that we feared if we brought tools and materials
in that we would probably cause a mob. We didn't think it was very
wise for our small group to work there.

We went in a different direction. Earlier in the day, we met Jimmy.
Along with everyone else, Jimmy lost his house and had begun to
rebuild. Jimmy is the guy who sold us our tour to the islands
yesterday. He looks to be in his 30s, has a wife and 3 young girls
all living in one small room. 5 people. 2 beds. They built a separate
kitchen outside the house and that's about it. After doing some
talking with them, we decided that we are going to be able to move
some walls and doors and build the girls a bedroom in what is
currently the kitchen, build a new kitchen, build a bathroom, and make
a place for Jimmy and his wife in the existing house.

We know that we can't help everyone, but we can definitely help this
family. It's been a long day and we have another few long days of
construction ahead of us. I'll share a few pics of the earthquake. If
you take away some rubble and some power lines, the city pretty much
looks exactly the same.

Oh, we did get to visit the poor man's Galapagos today and see
penguins and sea lions and all that stuff. It was really cool, but
today was about the people.

Oops. We're in Peru -- Part 2

Note: This was supposed to have posted yesterday with part 1.

Part 2 - Sunday 3:11pm

We have been traveling for 26 hours. Our electronics are dead and you've missed a lot. We got to Piura around 10pm on Saturday and it was an absolute dump. The difference when we crossed the border was astonishing. We left the beautiful landscapes and amazing atmosphere of Ecuador and landed in what felt like Mogadishu. The only place in our Hemisphere that could even compare to Peru was El Salvadore.

 

Even though it was very late, we decided to catch a bus farther south to Trujillo. We got tickets on the upper level (second class) of a double decker bus and went to look for some grub. When we had first gotten to Piura, we had seen all these people grilling meat on the streets. It looked and smelled good, but by the time we had gotten our tickets, most of the grills had packed up. I finally found one and we were so excited, until I realized that we could identify the facial expressions of the chickens on the grill. Off to the gas station we went. We grabbed hot dogs and headed back to the terminal.

 

When we got on the bus, I went through the usual routine of establishing how far the seat in front of me could recline. The only difference was that this time the guy had reached behind the seat and felt that it was my knee before he repeatedly smashed it. In fact, I awoke in the night from a dead sleep to the guy making one last attempt to fully complain where I promptly placed his seat in the full and upright position.

 

After 10 whole minutes of driving we got stopped for 45 mins for our driver apparently hit a cone. I wasn't out there, but I'm pretty sure the police were just looking for a bribe. We eventually got back on the road only for the bus to break down 10 mins later. The lady in the row ahead of me was repeatedly banging on the glass telling the bus driver "let's go!".  I guess he thought we were sitting there taking a break after 20 mins of driving.  We sat for over an hour waiting for a replacement bus.  There really wasn't any kind of instruction so I decided to go to the luggage compartment and I was in a foul enough mood that I bear hugged both my bag and Cory's and walked to the new bus. I was pretty determined that our bags were going with us. It was a good thing.

 

Let me paint a picture for you. The bus was parked on the very edge of the road with MAYBE 1 foot of sand between the bus and a 100 foot drop (steep hill, not a cliff). I made the treacherous trip, but our bus driver didn't. Well, he did, but he was carrying luggage from the other bus. In losing his footing, he decided (wisely) to drop the passenger's bag which I watched roll all the way down the hill. We looked at each other. He shrugged and went about his business, leaving the bag.

 

We got to Trujillo, Peru at around 8am, and found that it was only slightly better than the previous 3 towns in Peru that we had been in, so we bought tickets for Lima on a 9:30 bus. Thus began another food search which after a few of the worst street vendors and restaurants that I've personally seen, led us to another gas station. We also bought something that was a cross between a Jamaican beef patty and an empenada.

 

Our bus left 30 mins late, but this time we were in first class. Since Cory and I had stayed up till 5:30am talking, I slept a good bit on this bus. We awoke at the nicest restaurant that we had seen in Peru (that's not saying much). Jordan tried to order the guinea pig (it's called puy), but they didn't have time because they have to kill it fresh and we were on a tight schedule. Cory had Chinese rice (with hot dogs in it) and the rest of us had steak and rice and fries. It was our first real food in 48 or so hours.

 

The culture here is so different. It's one thing for people to jump in line, but here people will literally push you out of the way. When I was fully loaded with my backpack waiting to order food, you had a 16 old girl actually use 2 hands to push me out of the way to order at the register. That's been happening the whole time we've been in this area. I'm a good foot taller and a lot bigger than almost everyone here, so that's pretty bold. After watching 4 people jump the line and no one seeming to get upset, I literally went from the back of the line to the register, ordered my drink (while the girl was already looking in the fridge from someone else), plopped my 2 soles (Peruvian $) on the counter and walked away. It's a different world here.

 

As we have gotten outside of the northern cities, the scenery has turned breathtaking. We have spent hundreds of miles driving along the Panamerican Highway with sandy dunes on the left as far as they eye can see and the teal waters of the pacific to our right. This is the Peru I have been hearing about. I love it.

 

We don't have any intentions of spending the night in Lima. We will catch another bus (that's 4 if you're keeping track) for the 90 min ride from Lima to Pisco. Pisco is the jumping off point to what they call the poor man's Galapagos. It's supposed to be a wildlife wonderland with penguins and all sorts of exotic animals.

 

I don't know if there's gonna be a 3rd part of this blog, today, but I hope so. Our electronics all have low batteries from the long trip. The Phillies game ended 18 hours ago and I still have no idea what happened. Hopefully I can get the internet somewhere and send this. Our bellies are full and the scenery is breathtaking, so don't worry about us.

Update: We are safe and sound and rested in Pisco.