Anniversarial Thoughts

Saturday marked a very auspicious and important day in the life of both Peru and Me.
Saturday July 19th was my one year anniversary of living in Trujillo, Peru and working with Peru Mission.

I remember the day I arrived like it was just yesterday....

Just kidding, this will not be a blog full of cheesiness, I still after all, am me.

However I will let you guys know that the past year of my life has been wonderful at times, terrible at times, however the common thread has been that God has been growing me from the start. I would not trade this last year of my life for anything. I know that the past year/future year was not my expected path. I kid you not, I was planning on graduating and beginning my career in interior design right away (like a normal person would). However that clearly was not the plan that God had for me. I know that this path is not the norm, but this was the path that God had planned for me from the beginning, and I rest assured that this is the path that was chosen for me in order for God to best sanctify me and to teach me lessons that I would not have learned otherwise.

So what exactly have I learned this past year? Why yes, I will tell you ten things I've learned.

1. Where the street food stands are that will not make you sick.
2. How to be more patient and not be stressed when things dont begin exactly on time
3. The prices of taxi rides for Gringos are not the same for Peruvians.
4. How to haggle with taxi drivers until I get the Peruvian taxi price.
5. We don't flush toilet paper here, and getting out of that habit is pretty difficult when you return to the states.
6. Salsa dancing can take place any day of the week, at any given restaurant or friend's house. I also learned to salsa so that I can be prepared for any given restaurant or friend's house.
7. Living in a Coastal desert often means no rain and a lot of sand.
8. Fruit will always be better from an open air market than from a grocery store.
9 Things in Peru are generally louder than in the States. Enjoy it.
10. How to say the Lord's Prayer in Spanish, without looking at the words, and while keeping up with all the native spanish speakers around me who I'm pretty sure can say it all in one breath.

Of course, I have learned other things as well, but those are just a few highlights.