Casa Cunca

Hola! You will have to forgive me not posting yesterday. I had, shall we say, some major intestional issues. Hope the problem is all cleared up now, but I am still not feeling quite right. Ugh. Hate being ill on trips. So I have a bit to fill you in on. Yesterday we went out to a little village called Casa Cunca, which means house with a neck. Wierd I know. We went there to help them paint their school as well help repair a green house. Apparently this little village grows over 200 types of potatoes. Yeah, I didn't know there were that many types of potatoes either. Their poor village is located at approximately 12,800 feet up, and with all the flooding that has been happening, their little mud houses are starting to be washed away. They told us that if they have one more flood their houses will wash right off the mountain.

This little truck is what got us up the last part of the hill.
Our bus was too big to go over a steep curve in the road,

and by luck this little truck pulled up right as we needed it to.
We all piled in the back and up we went.

The drive to the village was absolutely georgeous. I have never seen such beautiful scenery. Everything was so green. The road that we were driving on very rarely has cars on it, as the people of the village do not own any sort of transportation. They walk the 3ish hours to the nearest city if they need anything. In face, many of the children walk to school 2 hours in the morning, and then 3 hours to get home, every single day.
The kids were a little bit apprehensive of us when we first arrived. They didn't quite know what to do with a bunch of white people. I don't know if they have ever seen "our kind" before. We brought some toys with us, some balls, jumpropes, bubbles, and candy. They loved candy. After a bit they warmed up to us a little, but their little brows were always a little bit furrowed.

His beautiful little face just captivated me. Precious.

It was nice to be able to get out and work with the people. I was very grateful to be able to serve and play and love on the little ones. Towards the end of the day, when the older kids got out of school, we played a little game of soccer, which is always fun. Of course the kids are amazing, and could beat every single one of us. It was a lot of fun and over all a very nice day. It is always so humbling to see the circumstances that these people live in on a day to day basis. I am always amazed at the happiness and joy they can find in the simplicity, yet hardships of their lives. What an awesome thing to live in such a beautiful place, so untouched by the outside world.

Hellooooo Peru!

Well, we made it to our destination...Cusco, Peru. It was absoulutely beautiful today. Warm weather, blue skys, and a slightly cool breeze. Perfect. We flew out of Lima at 10 ish and arrived here at about 11ish.

Cusco is at quite a high altitude, it is 12,000 feet in the main areas and goes up from there. Because of this, in order to acclimatize, they recommend that you take it easy, don't walk fast, and drink cocoa tea. It is basically hot water with cocoa leaves in it. Yes, the very same leaves that they make cocaine out of. It is really disgusting. I literally had to choke it down, and almost didn't make it. It basically tastes like you are drinking old, dead, and slightly rotting leaves. YUCK.

Finally! All the nasty tea is gone.

We took a little walk today to the plaza. There was an amazing and beautiful cathedral. Apparently when the Spainish came and invaded Peru, they wanted to destroy the most sacred thing to them, their religion. So in almost every land space the Peruvians considered sacred, they put up a cathedral. Stupid Spanish. But I do have to say that they did make some beautiful buildings.

The city is beautiful. I am glad we had a day to rest and acclimitize. The streets are all made of cobble stone, with tiny mosaic like pathways down the middle of them. They are very unique and beautiful.

Tomorrow we are doing one of our humanitarian days. I am anxious to see what it will bring. The people here are very friendly, and the clothes are beautiful. At the plaza, there are people selling paintings, pictures, postcards, jewelry etc. One little boy, who claimed his name was Tom Cruise came up to me and was asking me to buy a postcard from him. I didn't want one, and he of course just kept following me around. We went to eat, and he waited for me outside the restaurant. He just kept following me, begging me to buy his postcard. Finally, just to get him off my back I offered him one American dollar as my final best offer - something I learned that worked well in Africa. He said that his postcards were worth much more than that and wouldn't take it. He said that I had promised to buy one once I was done eating, which was, of course, a lie. He told me I was a bad person and not very nice, and then he turned and walked away. It made me feel a little bad, but what can I do? I can't just hand out money because I feel bad. On the way home, we saw these two beautiful people. They said we could take a picture with them for free...which is rare. We ended up paying them though, and they were very happy. Beautiful.

Goodbye America

Well, it's been quite a day. We began this journey at approximately 3:18 am. Our flight left Las Vegas at 6:00 am, so we had to be up and at 'em bright and early. Ok, so it wasn't really bright, but you get the picture. We got to the airport before the gate was even open, so we had to stand around waiting for them to get everything going for a few minutes. We finally got to our gate and it was time to board. We flew out of gate D19. Had time to take 2 pictures.

After one small heart attack that we got on the wrong plane (I thought we were flying into JFK) everything went great (with the exception of a lot of turbulence) on the flight to Newark, New Jersey. We thought our layover was about an hour and a half, but once again, we were wrong. It was only 45 minutes, and our flight landed late. So we had about 30 minutes to find our gate, get our passports checked in and get on the plane. It turned out fine, and we made it.
However, I had planned to only carry on. My duffel fit just fine on the flight to EWR, but apparently it just wasn't happening from EWR to Lima. I don't know why. As we were on the little walk way to the plane, some guy thought that he needed to check everyone's bags. Ugh. I tried to sneak past him to no avail. He caught me and asked if I would like to check my bag. I told him no, to which he replied, but the overhead bins are already full, and this is a small plane. I told him that the last plane was small and my bag fit just fine, but he insisted, without knowing what size of plane I had previously come from, that this one was smaller and there was just no room for it. UGH!
I got on the plane, found my seat and looked around. The plane was exactly the same size as the previous plane, and every single overhead bin from the front of the plane to the middle of the plane had room for at least one bag, and the one right next to where I was sitting looked like this:

Apparently, this means it's too full for one more bag to possibly fit. I was a little perturbed, but after venting about it to Anne Marie for a few minutes, I vowed to let it go. :)
Anyway, we landed in Lima about 45 minutes later than we were supposed to, made our way to baggage claim, and my bag was already there waiting for me so I couldn't be too mad. We got through customs in a breeze, and about 20 minutes after we landed, we made it safely to our hotel, which was approximately 20 yards from the airport. Nice.
Tomorrow we are flying to Cusco where the conference is. I am excited and a little nervous to present. Ok, a lot nervous. It will be a great experience. I am a little bummed, as there is still a lot of damage on the rail road tracks and we may not be able to do Machu Picchu after all. Oh well. I have to keep telling myself that I utimately came for the expereince of presenting at an International Public Health conference, and Machu Picchu would just be a huge bonus. There are still some amazing things to see, and it will give me a reason to come back, with Danny!!

After being up for nearly 24 hours, I think it is time to say goodnight. It was too dark when we got here to take a real photo of what Peru looks like, so this plant in our hotel will have to suffice for now. :)

Thanks dad, for letting me borrow your camera. Already I can tell it is going to take way better pictures than mine would have! Stay posted. I will keep you updated! Much love, peace out.

Date Night

So, a couple weekends ago Dan and I decided to go out on the amazing, and huge town of Provo. There is always an adventure to be had in "zoo" town! The last time we went out on a date in Provo we went to The Malt Shoppe, and in typical BYU fashion, there was a triple date going on. The daters chose the booth next to ours, and thought it pertinent to pray over their hamburgers and fries. Yes, pray. Oh, and I am not talking about the close your eyes for a couple seconds, I am talking full folding their arms, bowing their heads and mumbling their prayer aloud. We were lauging histerically - quietly of course. Based on this experience, you can imagine how excited we were to go once again to Provo for our date night.

We started the date out at Outback Steak House, thanks to a gift certificate from some great friends. Friday nights at restaurants, as you all know, can be very hecktic. Especailly here in the Provo/Orem area, where they refuse to take reservations. So we went and got our name on the list and decided to hit up this cute little bakery called The Sweet Tooth Fairy. They sell gourmet cookies, cupcakes, brownies, cake balls, suckers, etc. We choose 3 cupcakes and 3 cookies. There were so many choices, we couldn't just chose 2!

We then headed back to the restaurant where we had some great steak. We also had the wonderful privelage of sitting next to some very serious "anti BYUers." They believed in yelling insead of talking, and weren't afraid to express their opinions about how "lame" BYU is. We all know the type. We loved it, and hated it.

After dinner, we decided to go out for some good old fashioned bowling. We had no idea the bowling in "zoo" town is quite popular, and apparently, the thing to do on a Friday night. We arrived at Fat Cats Alley only to find that the wait was approximately 3 hours, but we could definately get our name on the list. We obviously didn't want to wait 3 hours, so we left to find another bowling alley around - which wasn't hard to do, as there are a lot of bowling alleys around. We decided on Miracle Bowl. Well, once again we were dismayed as we found out that the wait there was also a couple hours. Never would I have ever thought that I needed to make a reservation to go bowling.

We decided to forgo the bowling idea, and decided to go shopping instead. But, by that time the mall was already closed, so we stopped by the Kohl's by our house. Sadly, there were no awesome finds. So we decided to do the typical -- get a Redbox, and snuggle on the couch. AKA, Danny watches the movie and I fall asleep. It really is probably my favorite thing to do, but for obvious reasons, Danny hates it. We go through a ritual, he frequently asks if I am awake, to which I nod my head, which he takes as a "YES." I just do it so he won't wake me up. I really am alseep. Then he has to deal with helping me get to bed, getting me into pjs and brushing my teeth. He usually does get a laugh or two out of the funny half-alseep comments I make, so it can't be that bad.

Ah date nights. My ideas are getting sparce, so I am up for any fun ideas any of you have. As you can tell, I NEED HELP!!!!

On another note, a couple weeks ago I got BANGS! What's the verdict?

Peru Bound...

Ok friends, it's official! I am going to Peru. On Thursday, February 11, Lynley, the professor I went to Africa with invited Anne Marie and I to speak with her about the research we completed in Africa at a conference in Cusco, Peru.

Since we have been back from Africa, we have been working on publishing our findings. We really would like to present at a conference, and usually the rules are that if you want to present, you have to do it preceding publication. (Crazy, I know) We could present at any health conference, but when this opportunity came up, we couldn't let it pass. So, we are off to Peru. I don't have all the details yet, but as far as I understand, we will be presenting on our findings of HIV/AIDS, how to prevent, change lifestyles, and provide information regarding myths associated with HIV/AIDS. We will also be speaking on health literacy, and just general preventative care practices. I am so excited. We leave March 20, and will be gone for 8 days. (I get to spend my 22 birthday in Peru).

We will be speaking for 2 days, and when we are not speaking, we will be providing humanitarian aid for the people. I am so happy to be able to help. Ever since coming back from Africa, my heart has been aching for something more I can do. Recently, there has been some major flooding, so we will be helping build, paint and clean up the damage. It will be a wonderful experience.

The last two days of the trip will be spent in a small village at the base of Machu Picchu. If the flood damage is taken care of, we will be able to hike Machu Picchu as well as the larger mountain next to it, though at this moment, it's name escapes my mind. Our flight leaves quite late on Sunday the 28th, so we will spend the last day touring around Lima, Peru's capital, shopping and seeing the sights. I feel so blessed to have yet another opportunity to serve and further my experience in the health field. I have been given some great opportunities to serve others, as well as gain an education and understanding of what the world is really like outside my protected, safe bubble. The Lord works in mysterious ways in my life. He seems to place opportunities in my lap and say, this would be great for you, take it or leave it. I hope I will always be able to take those opportunites and make them the greatest they can be. Life is crazy, and there isn't room for "should haves" "would haves" "might have beens" and "if onlys" I feel so blessed to be in a place in my life where these words don't apply, and even more blessed to have a husband who supports me in every decision and opportunity I get. He is truly the best man in the world!!