Tuesday, October 20, 2009

so long...

for now see you in the next page!!!


in light of lots of changes going on around me, i opted to change up my blog too. actually... ive been waiting for the right opportunity for this. you see, when you sign up for a blog... its justn ot a good idea to sign up for one with your university email address. because eventually that email address gets cacelled... and eventually you have a REALLY hard time getting into your blog because you forget the password (numerous occasions) and cant have it emailed to you because you cant sign into your email any longer.

so please see all future julie posts at the following address:

http://perandom.blogspot.com/

i hope you like it! i have been working on it/i am still working on it... tell me what you think!

Sunday, August 16, 2009

my friends...

are crazy fun. can you guess which ones actually play instruments? 
pre church 'jam session'


Monday, August 10, 2009

the process of a juane

a juane is a food from the jungle... a present if you will, of rice packed around chicken olives and boiled egg. its cooked up in banana leaves, and just ...so so good. many of my friends/students are from the jungle and i had been planning with one of them to one day spend some time preparing juanes or jungle food together. i had no idea just how much time that entailed... until this past saturday...
our day began at 10:30ish when I Angela and her Aunt went to a local market in search of our ingredients... which began with a visit to the chickens... i had no idea what was about to happen, my first time to this particular market i was getting caught up in taking in everything around me when i realized the vendor had grabbed one of the chickens i was admiring to well, appropriately prepare it for our meal. that... was definitely my first experience watching that kind of process. i was trying to find saliva to swallow as i was also trying to understand angelas aunt explain that this was the cheaper market where everyone else comes to get their meat and veggies and everything else, then sell. 

the markets are wonderful places full of colors and smells and everything you can imagine...eggs....

...sticks of cinnamon... barrels of olives...



...mountains of dried peppers and fresh garlic.... i wanted to take pictures at the market but was in the opinion that it wasnt safe for me to even take my camera let alone get it out for photos. angela encouraged me to act the tourist part though, so i timidly took a few pictures while securely holding my camera in both hands. the one thing i wish i had a picture of that i was too shy to take for it being too far of a step of looking the tourist, was of some people whom i am assuming were natives to a part in the jungle who were wearing traditional clothing and selling their medicines. they were walking the market trying to convince people to buy their jars of herbs/liquids. i have a bad that is made from material from the jungle and as they walked by us i heard their leader try to convince me to take their product and said 'but you are using my bag!!" 



The first thing we had to do after our trip to the market was take the banana leaves and start to clean them. Johana, one of my students, took on this task:



the trick to learning the secrets of cooking peruvian food is watching a gifted aunt teach her niece how to appropriately prepare everything... we had to put the banana leaves over a flame until they slightly turned color so that they would be more flexible...



mixing up rice with the right color and aromas....



and finally putting it into the banana leaves with an olive, boiled egg and chicken to be wrapped then cooked. 



see... its like a present no? all of the experiences of that Saturday were more than memorable from the chicken.. to watching angelas 8month pregnant aunt truck around the market with carrying a kilo of rice and more veggies with more strength and speed than myself... to preparing and wrapping up the juanes amidst stories of their family and the jungle... we spent plenty of good time together saturday preparing the juane for the next day sunday lunch.



sundays are by far by far my favorite day of the week. after the morning service at larco our normal routine is to gather together for lunch at a restaurant or in someones house as in this weekends case in my friends house for the juanes we had made, plus this amazingly tasty jungle soup made of peanut that her aunt surprised us with. we eat lunch then find someones home to relax in until the evening service. its just an awesome day of relaxing in the environment of friends on the Lords day of rest. its that time when you are so content that you just want to wrap up the moments/emotions/warmth/peace/comfort of finding rest into your own banana leaf and keep it for a day in the middle of the week when you need to be reminded of the peace that God extends to us. 



that time between services is also so great because it serves like a time of common ground between the friends that i have already within the church and the friends that dont frequent the church so much.. a time when we can enjoy one another and be encouraged by one another... and usually the whole group goes together to the church for the night service. the sacrifice is a sunday nap, i think its well replaced. 

Wednesday, August 5, 2009

a new season

a new season in Peru means... the weather is getting colder but we still live in the city 'of eternal spring' so not too cold. ...until your body adjusts to the cold weather and you find yourself wrapped up in sweaters and jackets even when you see other tourists visiting in shorts and t shirts. i think this is a hint that you are adjusting to the country. at least your body is. 
it also means new faces for the interns. the monty of July saw our summer interns return for  home to begin university classes again, just as we were getting to know them. But as they left we received 7 new faces to get to know, most of them staying with us for the next 10 months. 

notice that even though I said the weather is changing for colder, we still visit the beach. Huanchaco is about a 15/20 minute drive away, we went there Friday to enjoy some lunch. Many of us cebiche which is a traditional dish here of fish cooked or not cooked based on your perspecitve of cooking... in lime juice. its tasty. 

one of our first days all together, with a birthday party for one of our friends in the mission. Some of our Peruvian friends from the church threw Eric a Peruvian birthday party, it was a lot of fun, including the dancing. which i still haven't picked up even with a year under my belt. ha.

Wednesday, July 15, 2009

Jamesson

became a member of the Larco church this past weekend. :D
he's a student of English, a friend, and looks after me like a brother. 
calls me mana (short for hermana which is spanish for sister) 
it was/these are happy days. 




Josue

It doesn't matter what culture you are in,
 you can always find a teenager that thinks he's too cool for photos. 

Monday, July 6, 2009












in peru when you order a sandwich there are soooo many kinds of condiments to choose from. it's pretty crazy. mostaza (mustard) ketchup (um, ketchup) mayonesa (mayonnaise) aceituna (olive) and aji (spicy peruvian pepper) plus im sure more than i dont know about. 

and, there of course as in any big city, is plenty of graffiti to discover.