There is no easy way to say it... Nelton didn’t get approved for a visa. The words are heavy and basically sum up how the day went.
I couldn’t go in with him and when he came out he was smiling, I was hopeful and sure he had it. So when he told me he didn’t, I really didn’t believe him at first, until he short me the “we regret to inform you...” note.
We really don’t know why. The process to get him in was 3 hours, the interview was less than 2 minutes and they didn’t even look at his paperwork or any of the evidence we provided.
One thing could be because under “How long do you intend to stay?” on the application we wrote “89 days, unless I can get an extension from the United States for 90 more days.”
I really figured they would want an honest answer, providing all our intentions.
When they asked Nelton how long he intended to stay he said “3 months” and the lady just said “it says here 6 months.” Which is not what it says. So I guess if we go for the extension in the future we don’t tell we want it???
Anyway, the real reason they told him in the interview was that because I don’t have my card of residency yet, we don’t have tying binds to be here. However, I do have my residency, because the law of Peru says once it’s in your passport, you are a resident. He had evidence of that, but didn’t look at it. They just went on Nelton’s word that we are getting out my card Friday and didn’t think it was good enough. So really, we don’t know what it was, because we have evidence of property here and those “tying binds” but didn’t get a chance to show them.
So really, I’m honest when I say I don’t understand the plan of the Lord in all this. My heart is sad because I was really looking forward to getting home and seeing everyone. I have to admit that having the baby in the States also provided comfort at the thought of having familiar surroundings in a new and potentially difficult situation, labor.
I’m experiencing various waves of emotions: anger at my country, frustration for not knowing what we did wrong, sadness for not knowing when we’ll be able to go home, disappointment that Nelton won’t meet my family and friends until who knows when, peace by knowing that God is in control and knows why this didn’t work out just now, and maybe a little fear at the thought of having the baby here, but then comes the peace and confidence that God has a reason.
So the plan is to wait until maybe July, when we come to work on the baby’s citizenship and try again.
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
Saturday, February 13, 2010
Visa Update! Urgent Prayer Request!
Nelton and I both have to go to Lima. Me to complete my residency, and him to apply for his visa and have his interview.
We will be leaving on Feb. 21st and will be working on both of our visa's until the 27th.
We are working on getting him a tourist visa, which will allow him to be in the States for 90 days, during which time he can apply for a 90 day extension. The visa is apparently good for ten years, which is the reason we are going that route. The process involves collecting all our paperwork to prove that we intent to return, we have reason to return, we have the funds to support us while we are there, and we have good reason to be there. Next, there is an interview that lasts 3-5 minutes, in which he presents everything. I just found out (and am very excited!) that by the end of the interview we will know if he is approved or denied. We should also know how long before he will have his visa and can travel.
PLEASE PRAY FOR FAVOR!!!
Apparently, we bring all the paperwork to be prepared, but the officer may or may not even look at any of it. I believe that with obtaining my Peruvian residency, we should have a good chance of getting it as it will prove that we intend to live here, not there.
At any rate, please pray!! We want to get to this States this year!
More updates to come.
We will be leaving on Feb. 21st and will be working on both of our visa's until the 27th.
We are working on getting him a tourist visa, which will allow him to be in the States for 90 days, during which time he can apply for a 90 day extension. The visa is apparently good for ten years, which is the reason we are going that route. The process involves collecting all our paperwork to prove that we intent to return, we have reason to return, we have the funds to support us while we are there, and we have good reason to be there. Next, there is an interview that lasts 3-5 minutes, in which he presents everything. I just found out (and am very excited!) that by the end of the interview we will know if he is approved or denied. We should also know how long before he will have his visa and can travel.
PLEASE PRAY FOR FAVOR!!!
Apparently, we bring all the paperwork to be prepared, but the officer may or may not even look at any of it. I believe that with obtaining my Peruvian residency, we should have a good chance of getting it as it will prove that we intend to live here, not there.
At any rate, please pray!! We want to get to this States this year!
More updates to come.
Our Trip to Colombia
Our trip to Colombia was squished in the middle of Kelsey leaving, us moving, and heading back to the jungle.
We went by way of speed boat, which was only an 8-9 hour trip. We landed at the edge of Peru and had to take a small wooden fishing boat to Colombia. The fun started there, because Nelton has never been out of his country. Nelton had our stuff loaded in the boat and I told him he better ask and make sure that this particular boat accepted soles (Peruvian currency). Nelton, working with USD and Soles in the ministry, but never having a problem with people accepting soles, asked. When the man heard the question, he took our luggage and threw it on the dock without even verbally responding. Nelton was a bit shocked. I really didn’t think that culture shock would be an issue for Nelton, because it’s another South American culture, but he went through it. It was his first time out of Peru.
Leticia Colombia is where we had to get my stamps in my passport and pay a fee for residency. This is the point where Brazil, Peru, and Colombia all come together. You can see the other two countries from whatever countries bank you are on. The change was indeed different between the three countries. Colombia and Brazil have very developed towns/cities with electricity, concrete buildings, paved streets, cars, motorcycles, busses, businesses, hotels, etc. Leticia, especially was my favorite. They have many laws about noise and litter, so the streets are clean and tranquil. It’s almost like a sweet little town from the 1950‘s, everyone is friendly and helpful, most people walk, and there is an overall sense of hospitality and community.
The Peruvian side, on the other hand, is a typical jungle village and feels a good 50-100 years behind the other two countries. Most buildings are huts, there is one sidewalk that runs through the middle of the village, it’s dirty with litter, and though there is electricity and running water, it’s still run by generators and both only work at certain hours of the day.
Before we even arrived, Nelton was set on staying in Peru and traveling back and forth between Colombia and Peru. In my mind, lets stay in Colombia and really experience the country (I love traveling!). I’d never been to Colombia, so to me we’d get a fuller experience if we slept, ate, played, and worked in Colombia. Plus, I had already made reservations at a mission house, recommended by other missionaries.
So back to the story, we ended up changing some soles for pesos in Peru, not even sure what the value of the money was, so we could get to Colombia. The exchange rate was something like $1,900 Colombian Pesos for $1, it made for crazy math between soles, USD, and Pesos so that we were both clear on how much stuff cost. It was even harder for me at first, because Nelton exchanged the money and couldn’t remember exactly what the rate was. Once I had a good rate in my head, I had no problem, but everything costs like $6,000 or $25,000 and stuff, so it took Nelton a while to figure it out. It was so fun! We would exchange money and he would be like “I’m so right I have THOUSANDS of pesos!” Then a taxi ride for an hour would be like $18,000 pesos. And so after one ride or one meal, we’d see ourselves getting poorer.
When we got to Colombia, we didn’t have enough pesos to get a taxi, so we walked over the whole city twice, looking for the mission house. When we couldn’t find it, we had to go to the internet to look up directions, then walked back across town and discovered, we had passed it twice, but there was no sign on the outside and it was locked up with chains. We had even knocked there once, with no answer. When we arrived at the same place, Nelton was ready to just go to another place, and I should have listened. But being the typical North American, I was like “No, I’ve already made arrangements, we can’t just not show up.” So I stood there knocking and yelling in the gate for like 10 minutes before a Colombian sheepishly came to the gate. Well, they knew nothing of our plans to stay. Apparently, the director was in the States, and while he said everything would be set up, he neglected to inform the staff in Colombia.
From the moment of our arrival, we felt like an inconvenience. As comical as the story goes, and as much as I enjoy telling the story, I will spare the details. In short, we had to walk between the two buildings several times, which are a few blocks apart (at which point I was EXHAUSTED and just wanted to REST!) to work out the details. They finally got a room set up for us. Throughout that time we learned that we had to observe curfew, didn’t have keys to the outside gate (meaning yelling and knocking would have been a regular occurrence), had a schedule for meal time, had to wash our own dishes after mealtime, and such. Not a problem, but along with doing all the paperwork, I was hoping to enjoy our time in Colombia.
When we finally got our room, I felt like the place would redeem itself with AC, but that ended up being broken, shattering my heart. It’s been FOREVER since I have had the relief of AC, and was looking forward to it. So I was not too happy when on top of everything else, that was broken too. The straw that broke the camels back was when the water ran out as Nelton was showering. When I told the staff we would probably look for another place, as the schedule didn’t really fit with the work we had to do (we thought we would be free to come and go as we pleased in order to get the work done), and that the water ran out. He told me I just had to go down and manually pump it, which was news to me.
Long story short, Nelton was NOT excited about Colombia. Culture shock was rapid and harsh to him. He missed Peru and was ready to pack it up and head home after 2 hours in Colombia. I just laughed, we both really laughed our way through the miscommunication with the mission house. They were gracious and understood when we did end up looking for other accommodations.
So, we set out by foot, again, to look for a new hotel. Most were full because of a Colombian holiday the following day. But we ended up finding a good one, and it only cost a few dollars more than the Mission House.
When we finally settled into our new accommodations, it was getting late, but Nelton was starting to enjoy the adventure of a new culture. So we hit the streets, Nelton’s idea. I was exhausted, but we just walked up and down main street to see what the place was like. The following day we had to go back to Peru to stamp out at immigrations. As the small fishing boat was pulling up to Peru, Nelton looked at his country, in comparison to the beautiful town we had just come from and said, “This is so embarrassing. I hate my country! It’s so disgusting.” He started seeing all the litter and trash and was like “Why do they do that?” I laughed so hard and only said, “Reverse culture shocks 100 times worse.” Then I lovingly reminded him he wanted to stay in Peru, he was like “NO way! We are going back to Colombia as soon as we can. It was a good eye opener for him. I can only imagine his trip to the States.
We enjoyed the bakeries (it’s been FOREVER since I’ve had good bread!), and just the simplicity of the town. Running around, getting the visa stuff done went smoothly and we completed our mission for my residency in Colombia. Now, come to find out I have to go to Lima, more about that in the next post.
The big adventure is that we ran out of money, we had no idea how much Colombia would cost, and it was a little more pricey than Peru. I think because it is a more touristy place, and if not touristy, several people have to go there to complete that step for residency. I didn’t think it was a problem, because I had an ATM card, only, I ended up being locked out of my ATM in Colombia. So, yeah, mom came to the rescue via facebook (thanks those who saw our 911 and responded) and we got our money. We didn’t go to Brazil until the last day, when all our paperwork was done, and it’s probably a good thing, because I’m sure it would have been overwhelming for Nelton. Brazil, of course, is not only a different currency, but a whole different language too. It did have a distinct feel to it, but I could still see a lot of South America in it. We only a little bit of money, and we needed to save some of it for our boat ride back to Peru, so we walked most of the town and didn’t buy anything, except for supper. By this time, Nelton was loving other cultures and surprised me when he whipped out some Portuguese, he had picked some up on TV and sounded native to me. Of course, what would I know?
It ended up being a wonderful trip. Aside from getting all the paperwork done, we enjoyed our first get-a-way as a married couple. To me, it was more of a honeymoon than our honeymoon because we were away from everyone we knew. Our after the wedding honeymoon was spent in Iquitos, and we had phone calls, Nelton ended up needing to run errends for the ministry, and we even had a few guests show up to see our honeymoon suite. Needless-to-say, it was not just us.
At least in Colombia, we knew when we could work, because Colombian Immigrations and Peruvian Consulate had hours of operation. So we worked during those times, and enjoyed ourselves the rest of the time.
We went by way of speed boat, which was only an 8-9 hour trip. We landed at the edge of Peru and had to take a small wooden fishing boat to Colombia. The fun started there, because Nelton has never been out of his country. Nelton had our stuff loaded in the boat and I told him he better ask and make sure that this particular boat accepted soles (Peruvian currency). Nelton, working with USD and Soles in the ministry, but never having a problem with people accepting soles, asked. When the man heard the question, he took our luggage and threw it on the dock without even verbally responding. Nelton was a bit shocked. I really didn’t think that culture shock would be an issue for Nelton, because it’s another South American culture, but he went through it. It was his first time out of Peru.
Leticia Colombia is where we had to get my stamps in my passport and pay a fee for residency. This is the point where Brazil, Peru, and Colombia all come together. You can see the other two countries from whatever countries bank you are on. The change was indeed different between the three countries. Colombia and Brazil have very developed towns/cities with electricity, concrete buildings, paved streets, cars, motorcycles, busses, businesses, hotels, etc. Leticia, especially was my favorite. They have many laws about noise and litter, so the streets are clean and tranquil. It’s almost like a sweet little town from the 1950‘s, everyone is friendly and helpful, most people walk, and there is an overall sense of hospitality and community.
The Peruvian side, on the other hand, is a typical jungle village and feels a good 50-100 years behind the other two countries. Most buildings are huts, there is one sidewalk that runs through the middle of the village, it’s dirty with litter, and though there is electricity and running water, it’s still run by generators and both only work at certain hours of the day.
Before we even arrived, Nelton was set on staying in Peru and traveling back and forth between Colombia and Peru. In my mind, lets stay in Colombia and really experience the country (I love traveling!). I’d never been to Colombia, so to me we’d get a fuller experience if we slept, ate, played, and worked in Colombia. Plus, I had already made reservations at a mission house, recommended by other missionaries.
So back to the story, we ended up changing some soles for pesos in Peru, not even sure what the value of the money was, so we could get to Colombia. The exchange rate was something like $1,900 Colombian Pesos for $1, it made for crazy math between soles, USD, and Pesos so that we were both clear on how much stuff cost. It was even harder for me at first, because Nelton exchanged the money and couldn’t remember exactly what the rate was. Once I had a good rate in my head, I had no problem, but everything costs like $6,000 or $25,000 and stuff, so it took Nelton a while to figure it out. It was so fun! We would exchange money and he would be like “I’m so right I have THOUSANDS of pesos!” Then a taxi ride for an hour would be like $18,000 pesos. And so after one ride or one meal, we’d see ourselves getting poorer.
When we got to Colombia, we didn’t have enough pesos to get a taxi, so we walked over the whole city twice, looking for the mission house. When we couldn’t find it, we had to go to the internet to look up directions, then walked back across town and discovered, we had passed it twice, but there was no sign on the outside and it was locked up with chains. We had even knocked there once, with no answer. When we arrived at the same place, Nelton was ready to just go to another place, and I should have listened. But being the typical North American, I was like “No, I’ve already made arrangements, we can’t just not show up.” So I stood there knocking and yelling in the gate for like 10 minutes before a Colombian sheepishly came to the gate. Well, they knew nothing of our plans to stay. Apparently, the director was in the States, and while he said everything would be set up, he neglected to inform the staff in Colombia.
From the moment of our arrival, we felt like an inconvenience. As comical as the story goes, and as much as I enjoy telling the story, I will spare the details. In short, we had to walk between the two buildings several times, which are a few blocks apart (at which point I was EXHAUSTED and just wanted to REST!) to work out the details. They finally got a room set up for us. Throughout that time we learned that we had to observe curfew, didn’t have keys to the outside gate (meaning yelling and knocking would have been a regular occurrence), had a schedule for meal time, had to wash our own dishes after mealtime, and such. Not a problem, but along with doing all the paperwork, I was hoping to enjoy our time in Colombia.
When we finally got our room, I felt like the place would redeem itself with AC, but that ended up being broken, shattering my heart. It’s been FOREVER since I have had the relief of AC, and was looking forward to it. So I was not too happy when on top of everything else, that was broken too. The straw that broke the camels back was when the water ran out as Nelton was showering. When I told the staff we would probably look for another place, as the schedule didn’t really fit with the work we had to do (we thought we would be free to come and go as we pleased in order to get the work done), and that the water ran out. He told me I just had to go down and manually pump it, which was news to me.
Long story short, Nelton was NOT excited about Colombia. Culture shock was rapid and harsh to him. He missed Peru and was ready to pack it up and head home after 2 hours in Colombia. I just laughed, we both really laughed our way through the miscommunication with the mission house. They were gracious and understood when we did end up looking for other accommodations.
So, we set out by foot, again, to look for a new hotel. Most were full because of a Colombian holiday the following day. But we ended up finding a good one, and it only cost a few dollars more than the Mission House.
When we finally settled into our new accommodations, it was getting late, but Nelton was starting to enjoy the adventure of a new culture. So we hit the streets, Nelton’s idea. I was exhausted, but we just walked up and down main street to see what the place was like. The following day we had to go back to Peru to stamp out at immigrations. As the small fishing boat was pulling up to Peru, Nelton looked at his country, in comparison to the beautiful town we had just come from and said, “This is so embarrassing. I hate my country! It’s so disgusting.” He started seeing all the litter and trash and was like “Why do they do that?” I laughed so hard and only said, “Reverse culture shocks 100 times worse.” Then I lovingly reminded him he wanted to stay in Peru, he was like “NO way! We are going back to Colombia as soon as we can. It was a good eye opener for him. I can only imagine his trip to the States.
We enjoyed the bakeries (it’s been FOREVER since I’ve had good bread!), and just the simplicity of the town. Running around, getting the visa stuff done went smoothly and we completed our mission for my residency in Colombia. Now, come to find out I have to go to Lima, more about that in the next post.
The big adventure is that we ran out of money, we had no idea how much Colombia would cost, and it was a little more pricey than Peru. I think because it is a more touristy place, and if not touristy, several people have to go there to complete that step for residency. I didn’t think it was a problem, because I had an ATM card, only, I ended up being locked out of my ATM in Colombia. So, yeah, mom came to the rescue via facebook (thanks those who saw our 911 and responded) and we got our money. We didn’t go to Brazil until the last day, when all our paperwork was done, and it’s probably a good thing, because I’m sure it would have been overwhelming for Nelton. Brazil, of course, is not only a different currency, but a whole different language too. It did have a distinct feel to it, but I could still see a lot of South America in it. We only a little bit of money, and we needed to save some of it for our boat ride back to Peru, so we walked most of the town and didn’t buy anything, except for supper. By this time, Nelton was loving other cultures and surprised me when he whipped out some Portuguese, he had picked some up on TV and sounded native to me. Of course, what would I know?
It ended up being a wonderful trip. Aside from getting all the paperwork done, we enjoyed our first get-a-way as a married couple. To me, it was more of a honeymoon than our honeymoon because we were away from everyone we knew. Our after the wedding honeymoon was spent in Iquitos, and we had phone calls, Nelton ended up needing to run errends for the ministry, and we even had a few guests show up to see our honeymoon suite. Needless-to-say, it was not just us.
At least in Colombia, we knew when we could work, because Colombian Immigrations and Peruvian Consulate had hours of operation. So we worked during those times, and enjoyed ourselves the rest of the time.
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
The Move
About ten minutes before Kelsey left, we found out an apartment 2 doors down had opened up, for only $24 more a month. We checked it out and said “yes!” 2 rooms, a kitchen with a sink and counters, a living room, and bathroom! All that or a room 3 times smaller than my dorm at school!? YES PLEASE!
So the day after Kels left, we were picking paint and for the next few days the boys were painting. It is amazing. After our trip to Colombia, we moved in and I settled things as much as I could over the weekend. Then we had a week long trip to the jungle and have been back for a little over a week now. We have really been settling into the place and getting some furniture made. We probably have spent a little over $200 on furniture, but it’s bought us a large book shelf, 2 sofas (which are still being made and I haven’t seen. Nelton designed them), a table, four chairs, and a TV shelf/stand. In months ahead, I’d like to get a desk and potentially some other small items/shelves. But for now it’s all more than I have had for the past 6 months and I am enjoying it like crazy! Plus, the space we have for a kitchen! We did have like a 2-3 foot space to stand in and cook, (ha, it was a joke!) and we did dishes in the shower. Now I have counter space and a kitchen sink! Our small fridge and stovetop are our appliances, in addition to our “house warming treats” I bought on our first day in the house. There was an offer for a coffeepot and toaster together for like $14 less than normal, and as there are never deals here, it was the best I could get. In the future it’d be nice to have an oven, blender, microwave, and possibly a mixer, but for now I’m just thankful for the counters and kitchen sink. NOT TO MENTION A TABLE AND CHAIRS! It feels like a home, instead of picnicing on the floor or bed, as there was no other space in our room for anything else. It’s funny how thankful you are for the small things after living without them for so long.
So the day after Kels left, we were picking paint and for the next few days the boys were painting. It is amazing. After our trip to Colombia, we moved in and I settled things as much as I could over the weekend. Then we had a week long trip to the jungle and have been back for a little over a week now. We have really been settling into the place and getting some furniture made. We probably have spent a little over $200 on furniture, but it’s bought us a large book shelf, 2 sofas (which are still being made and I haven’t seen. Nelton designed them), a table, four chairs, and a TV shelf/stand. In months ahead, I’d like to get a desk and potentially some other small items/shelves. But for now it’s all more than I have had for the past 6 months and I am enjoying it like crazy! Plus, the space we have for a kitchen! We did have like a 2-3 foot space to stand in and cook, (ha, it was a joke!) and we did dishes in the shower. Now I have counter space and a kitchen sink! Our small fridge and stovetop are our appliances, in addition to our “house warming treats” I bought on our first day in the house. There was an offer for a coffeepot and toaster together for like $14 less than normal, and as there are never deals here, it was the best I could get. In the future it’d be nice to have an oven, blender, microwave, and possibly a mixer, but for now I’m just thankful for the counters and kitchen sink. NOT TO MENTION A TABLE AND CHAIRS! It feels like a home, instead of picnicing on the floor or bed, as there was no other space in our room for anything else. It’s funny how thankful you are for the small things after living without them for so long.
Kelsey Cameron’s Trip: Feliz Navidad 2009 and Bringing in 2010
When Kelsey Cameron arrived, we weren’t really sure what the next few weeks would look like. Our plan was to go out to the jungle for a week or so to meet up with the team and for her to meet Nelton (DUH!) and to spend the holidays with him. However, she flew through Mexico and her suitcase never made it to Peru, which wouldn’t really have been a problem, except my malaria pills were in there and I couldn’t go to the jungle without them.
In addition, immigrations had called me into the office to let me know my paperwork was ready to travel. I had to go to Colombia before Jan. 6th (Kelsey would be leaving the 7th) for the next step in my residency. The 6th was when my tourist visa expired. If I couldn’t go by then, I needed to go back to immigrations and get my extension. At that point, we were toying with the idea of going to Colombia together, but really didn’t want to go without Nelton, and weren’t sure if he would be able to leave the jungle. So in the next 18 hours, we did what others told us couldn’t be done. We tracked down her suitcase and recovered it, cleared everything with immigrations so that I could travel, and boarded a launcha and started our voyage to the jungle.
The trip to the jungle in the launcha was interesting. It was my first time really traveling since being pregnant and the only launcha leaving was the smallest one, and it was PACKED! In addition, due to the pregnancy I’ve had to go to the bathroom more than often and the conditions on the boat were less than desirable. Everytime I went to the bathroom, the stench caused a stomache reaction leaving me wanting to or actually vomiting. So it was a battle between the lesser of two evils for the whole 48 hours on board.
In addition, the older man in the hammock next to me, who we affectionately named “Jillian,” seemed to find the only comfortable way to sleep was with his knee bulging out of his hammock into my back or over my hammock (I adjusted my own hammock a couple of times to find a comfortable way to sleep). At one point Kelsey let me use her hammock for a couple hours to take a nice uninterrupted nap, which ironically was the only time during the whole trip Jillian decided to rest himself on a bench rather than in the hammock. Oh, Jillian, how I will never forget you. Both on the launcha and the other boat trip, Kelsey wasted no time in bonding with the kids. Nearly all the girls on the Launcha were braiding there hair like Kelsey by the end of the trip, and she had quite the little fan club that would huddle around her hammock to learn all about the United States... and Michael Jackson. HA!
They could care less about me or what I had to say, which became clear when one girl asked if it snowed in the USofA, I replied that “yes, indeed it does.” She quickly looked at me and said, “NO! ASK HER!”
Among those we hung out with in the jungle, Kelsey quickly took the reputation as “the Brittney Spears of the jungle,” for her fame surpassed what we ever imagined. If Kelsey was the famous one, within 2 seconds it was clear that I became the “backstage help” or “props department.” At one point I was trying to relax a bit, the girls would go on with Kelsey in Spanish, and though she picked up a word here and there, she didn’t understand nearly as much as they thought she did. During the rambling, they asked her a question and when she didn’t respond one of the girls said, “No. You have to ask her translator.” We got the biggest kick out of what our duo was seen as on that launcha.
We arrived in Union to an overjoyed husband awaiting my arrival. We spent the night in Union and then headed to Estreno.
In Estreno, what became known as “Camp Estreno” started for Kels and I. It felt like we were at camp, because we slept in different “cabins,” ate at “the mess hall” at the same time together, played lots of games, and scheduled our “shower house” visits (river baths) at the same time. In addition, everyone on the team had their jobs, but Kels and I were just there and everyone wanted us to just enjoy our time. Which we did.
The jobs given to us quickly became known as our activities, which were sewing the covers over all the mattresses used for mission trips. In the heat of the day, it was an “activity” that drug on. What would have taken one Peruvian an afternoon to complete, we stretched out over three days or more, but it’s not like we had a whole other list of things to do. We did make our way to the farm from time to time to help Nelton. We were responsible to feed the 30 some rabbits, and all the chickens and ducks. We did enjoy that activity, we named all the rabbits, though we could probably only recall half of the names to this day.
We also had at least two days that we did laundry down at the river. The first day we went at it on our own, with the help of some of the little girls in the village, until they tired out and decided playing was a better option. The next day, we had “Counselor Nelton” as our teacher, and boy did we get a lesson in river laundry, that boy knows his stuff.
We also pulled of some fun activities with Nelton and “Captain Jaime,” such as our “Feliz Navidad 2009 Christmas Canoe Trip.” It was amazing as they took us back through a side river which had been swamped with all the rain, so we basically canoed through the jungle. Had we been alone, we would have never found our way out. But thankfully, Captain Jaime is no amateur. He was a professional fisherman before deciding to follow Christ and serve him, therefore he became known as our “Modern day Peter (or Pedro).”
We also had a photo shoot one night where Kelsey whipped out her photography skills and wowed us all. The boys really got into it and put our enthusiasm to shame. Another night, new years maybe?, we had a bonfire complete with marshmallows, which Kelsey taught the boys how to make perfectly. And what would the trip be without Nelton putting to use his culinary skills with french toast and homemade late night french fries.
As we got closer to “Feliz Navidad,” Kelsey and I both began thinking about Christmas in a way we had never thought before, the sacrifice of Christmas. It was our first Christmas in a foreign land without family, friends, and the normal trimmings, we were struck by the simplicity of the first Christmas as it was that day that God in the form of man left glory to be with us. Who even knew? Mary, Joseph, the heavenly hosts, and a few shepherds, but the rest of the world slept on in silence. Even though we had a Christmas eve service with the whole village, we still found ourselves finally enjoying the simpler and more significant side of Christmas.
As the simple side of Christmas was enjoyed, we were surprised by being asked to speak at the villages Christmas Eve service, probably an hour before the service. So we simply shared what God had been teaching us. Kelsey spoke, I translated, then I spoke a bit in Spanish, but we kept it short and simple. The night preceded with Eric (“activities director”) leading us all in several games, which, might I add, Nelton and I won the gaseosa (pop) for the married couple game! Then we all watched the movie “Fire Proof.”
I believe it was the 2nd or 3rd of Jan. that we all headed back to Iquitos. We made the trip in a day I think, it’s kinda a blur.
Needless to say, we had a few days to enjoy Iquitos, which included shopping, the zoo, frozen lemonade, the Peruvain “theme park” you might be able to call it, an ultrasound (to see if we could find the sex of the baby), and just loving life. Even though I’ve focused on the details and we did have a blast, her trip for me was hallmarked by all our deep discussions and encouraging talks. It was an incredible time with KJ and I’m so thankful for her visit.
In addition, immigrations had called me into the office to let me know my paperwork was ready to travel. I had to go to Colombia before Jan. 6th (Kelsey would be leaving the 7th) for the next step in my residency. The 6th was when my tourist visa expired. If I couldn’t go by then, I needed to go back to immigrations and get my extension. At that point, we were toying with the idea of going to Colombia together, but really didn’t want to go without Nelton, and weren’t sure if he would be able to leave the jungle. So in the next 18 hours, we did what others told us couldn’t be done. We tracked down her suitcase and recovered it, cleared everything with immigrations so that I could travel, and boarded a launcha and started our voyage to the jungle.
The trip to the jungle in the launcha was interesting. It was my first time really traveling since being pregnant and the only launcha leaving was the smallest one, and it was PACKED! In addition, due to the pregnancy I’ve had to go to the bathroom more than often and the conditions on the boat were less than desirable. Everytime I went to the bathroom, the stench caused a stomache reaction leaving me wanting to or actually vomiting. So it was a battle between the lesser of two evils for the whole 48 hours on board.
In addition, the older man in the hammock next to me, who we affectionately named “Jillian,” seemed to find the only comfortable way to sleep was with his knee bulging out of his hammock into my back or over my hammock (I adjusted my own hammock a couple of times to find a comfortable way to sleep). At one point Kelsey let me use her hammock for a couple hours to take a nice uninterrupted nap, which ironically was the only time during the whole trip Jillian decided to rest himself on a bench rather than in the hammock. Oh, Jillian, how I will never forget you. Both on the launcha and the other boat trip, Kelsey wasted no time in bonding with the kids. Nearly all the girls on the Launcha were braiding there hair like Kelsey by the end of the trip, and she had quite the little fan club that would huddle around her hammock to learn all about the United States... and Michael Jackson. HA!
They could care less about me or what I had to say, which became clear when one girl asked if it snowed in the USofA, I replied that “yes, indeed it does.” She quickly looked at me and said, “NO! ASK HER!”
Among those we hung out with in the jungle, Kelsey quickly took the reputation as “the Brittney Spears of the jungle,” for her fame surpassed what we ever imagined. If Kelsey was the famous one, within 2 seconds it was clear that I became the “backstage help” or “props department.” At one point I was trying to relax a bit, the girls would go on with Kelsey in Spanish, and though she picked up a word here and there, she didn’t understand nearly as much as they thought she did. During the rambling, they asked her a question and when she didn’t respond one of the girls said, “No. You have to ask her translator.” We got the biggest kick out of what our duo was seen as on that launcha.
We arrived in Union to an overjoyed husband awaiting my arrival. We spent the night in Union and then headed to Estreno.
In Estreno, what became known as “Camp Estreno” started for Kels and I. It felt like we were at camp, because we slept in different “cabins,” ate at “the mess hall” at the same time together, played lots of games, and scheduled our “shower house” visits (river baths) at the same time. In addition, everyone on the team had their jobs, but Kels and I were just there and everyone wanted us to just enjoy our time. Which we did.
The jobs given to us quickly became known as our activities, which were sewing the covers over all the mattresses used for mission trips. In the heat of the day, it was an “activity” that drug on. What would have taken one Peruvian an afternoon to complete, we stretched out over three days or more, but it’s not like we had a whole other list of things to do. We did make our way to the farm from time to time to help Nelton. We were responsible to feed the 30 some rabbits, and all the chickens and ducks. We did enjoy that activity, we named all the rabbits, though we could probably only recall half of the names to this day.
We also had at least two days that we did laundry down at the river. The first day we went at it on our own, with the help of some of the little girls in the village, until they tired out and decided playing was a better option. The next day, we had “Counselor Nelton” as our teacher, and boy did we get a lesson in river laundry, that boy knows his stuff.
We also pulled of some fun activities with Nelton and “Captain Jaime,” such as our “Feliz Navidad 2009 Christmas Canoe Trip.” It was amazing as they took us back through a side river which had been swamped with all the rain, so we basically canoed through the jungle. Had we been alone, we would have never found our way out. But thankfully, Captain Jaime is no amateur. He was a professional fisherman before deciding to follow Christ and serve him, therefore he became known as our “Modern day Peter (or Pedro).”
We also had a photo shoot one night where Kelsey whipped out her photography skills and wowed us all. The boys really got into it and put our enthusiasm to shame. Another night, new years maybe?, we had a bonfire complete with marshmallows, which Kelsey taught the boys how to make perfectly. And what would the trip be without Nelton putting to use his culinary skills with french toast and homemade late night french fries.
As we got closer to “Feliz Navidad,” Kelsey and I both began thinking about Christmas in a way we had never thought before, the sacrifice of Christmas. It was our first Christmas in a foreign land without family, friends, and the normal trimmings, we were struck by the simplicity of the first Christmas as it was that day that God in the form of man left glory to be with us. Who even knew? Mary, Joseph, the heavenly hosts, and a few shepherds, but the rest of the world slept on in silence. Even though we had a Christmas eve service with the whole village, we still found ourselves finally enjoying the simpler and more significant side of Christmas.
As the simple side of Christmas was enjoyed, we were surprised by being asked to speak at the villages Christmas Eve service, probably an hour before the service. So we simply shared what God had been teaching us. Kelsey spoke, I translated, then I spoke a bit in Spanish, but we kept it short and simple. The night preceded with Eric (“activities director”) leading us all in several games, which, might I add, Nelton and I won the gaseosa (pop) for the married couple game! Then we all watched the movie “Fire Proof.”
I believe it was the 2nd or 3rd of Jan. that we all headed back to Iquitos. We made the trip in a day I think, it’s kinda a blur.
Needless to say, we had a few days to enjoy Iquitos, which included shopping, the zoo, frozen lemonade, the Peruvain “theme park” you might be able to call it, an ultrasound (to see if we could find the sex of the baby), and just loving life. Even though I’ve focused on the details and we did have a blast, her trip for me was hallmarked by all our deep discussions and encouraging talks. It was an incredible time with KJ and I’m so thankful for her visit.
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