Peru: Day 57 (Gleefully Gliding Gracefully)

Man, sorry guys. It´s been a bit. Like 3 weeks. Three somewhat busy weeks though. Two Saturdays ago, I went to a youth vigil thing at church. It started at 10 p.m. and went until 6 a.m.. It was filled with worship and breakout groups and games and all sorts of fun. That sunday night I went to church again, at 5 p.m. and afterwards hung out with some of the youth group. I was on my own this time, and it was really an amazing time. We just went to Bembos (fast-food place here), and chilled out there. But it was so nice because they invited me along, and even though I don´t speak very much Spanish yet, we still had fun, joking around and talking and all that. And, through all that, I am realizing that I can follow some conversation in Spanish, which is so so nice to feel. That night I got invited to a birthday, one of the girls in the youth, Luz. Mary, Becky and I also got invited to a youth ´camp day´thing. So we went to a resort. We played soccer, and volleyball, and went to the mini-zoo they had. We made up cheers (which my team won, we were Naranja, or Orange). It was awesome. Afterwards, I went with the youth to get some chifa, (Peruvian Chinese food), and hang out some more with people. Yesterday, (the day after two days ago, on which the camp day took place) we went with Luz to Larcomar for her birthday, and in Larcomar....

We went PARAGLIDING! (This is paragliding, and this is also where we went paragliding).

So, ya, it was totally amazing. The views, and feeling of jumping off the cliffs, the rush of the dives, and the feeling of your stomach in your chest. It was absolutely incredible. When I was in the air, the instructor guy (the one actually flying the thing) took us into a spiralling dive towards the ocean. So intense. You are spinning in circles, and falling towards the ocean, and facing the ocean, and then he pulls up so your stomach goes to your toes. And then it is back up in your chest again because he drops down again. Oh, so much fun. I recommend it to everyone. So incredible.

School has been getting better and better, and some of the students who wouldn´t talk to me are now talking to me and asking for help and smiling and all that. One student would always say ¨Miss Vanessa¨whenever I went to help, and this past friday I got a hug and a smile from him...and he asks me for help now. Breakthrough. Anyways, the plan for the next few days is to relax. I was going to play soccer with some of the guys from church tonight., but I´ll be chilling out at home instead. This sunday I am going to the Lima Zoo with some of the guys from church, so that´ll probably be pretty sweet. The mini-zoo at the resort had a couple of monkeys and a toucan and some parrots, and I even held the hand of one of the monkeys. So I am expecting that the Lima Zoo will be even better than that.

This is our team at the resort. Naranja! (Orange!). We rocked.

One of the youth/music leaders Isaí, and I.

At Bembos. Luz (on my right), and Isaí. Yes, as you can see, I decided to take on the sun in an epic wrestling match. And if you think I look bad, you should see the sun.