On the mend...

Last week.

Terrible.

Really Terrible.

But.

I am on the mend.

Amidst a flood of stressful situations, multiple trips to the police station, and some other drama that will not be dwelt upon too much...or at all, I actually somehow made it through last week. I don't know if I'd say that I made it through well, but it's done.

I don't even know where to begin for describing last week. But one of the the major stresses included being worried about my financial situation over the next 6 months (I think it's pretty common knowledge that I'm here as a volunteer and in charge of raising enough money to cover my living expenses through donations so if I don't have any donations, I don't have any way to pay my rent and monthly cost of living- about 280 dollars monthly.) Anyway, I'm in some pretty great need of donations right now, I had no donations in December, and am still holding my breath to find out what kind of donations are coming in for this month. I'm praying...Alot.

And the police station visits you ask? Well. Me and the Trujillo Police have gotten to be buddies since Thursday. First of all, it has been a rough week for other people as well. Unfortunately, the laptop of my dear friend and co-missionary intern Julie Rogers was stolen this week. But the really hard part was that it got stolen off the top of her desk during the middle of the day from our shared office in SALI while 7 other people, including myself were in there. A guy who posed as a computer tech guy walked in while the other real computer tech guy was busy with something, and essentially just walked right out with Julie's laptop. The robbers are bold here. No doubt about that. Anyway, so because everything official requires a multiple step process, we went to the police station, went to a different police station, went back to the same police station, and then the next morning had to go back to the same police station. Julie's only been down in Peru for about 5 months, so she didn't want to go through that whole mess in Spanish by herself, so I went with her to translate, and since I more or less "officially" was the translator, I ended up taking my passport the second morning in case they needed a copy since my name was also in the police report. Enter: The Problem. I normally never walk around with my passport. Ever. Why? Because things can get stolen.

And they did.

After the police station Friday morning, I was walking back to SALI and was waiting to cross the street, I had a purse with me, with a zipper that was closed. As I was waiting to cross the street, I felt something, and since I am pretty alert for pickpocketing in Trujillo, I turned around the second I felt it, but I didn't see anyone suspicious, just everyone waiting to cross the street. Well, a little bit later I felt something again, turned around quickly again, but alas, this time, my purse was unzipped and my passport and 20 soles were gone. In addition to being bold, Trujillano choros (thieves) are quite nimble...and stealthy. But the good news is that I had a lot more stuff in my purse (cell phone, wallet, credit card, etc) that did not get stolen, I think because I turned around to check, but because my passport was on top, that's what Grabby Gabby got away with.

So, I went back to the police station. Again. To file my own report. The Trujillo police know me now. By name. We chatted, we joked, we laughed...well actually, they laughed at my apparent bad luck, and I think some pretty strong friendships have been formed with Officers Reyna, Ramirez, and the rest of the boys at station. I figure it can't be that bad of a thing to have the police on your side.

I now must travel to Lima, go to the embassy, get a new passport for 100 dollars, plus travel expenses and try to figure out that whole mess too.

See my first paragraph about the cause of my stress and you'll understand why that last bit about going to Lima is even more stressful to me.

So I should probably also mention that for those of you who know me, I am not usually this open about what I'm struggling with, however, I think this is one area that God is trying to teach me to work on, this whole, letting others help me. It's difficult. But here I am, with these burdens and trying to float along and make it through (though comparatively, especially from the true struggles I've seen of my friends and others in Peru, I know that mine probably aren't that big).

I've been trying to see God's faithfulness through this. As I was reading my Bible the other night, and trying to encourage a friend who's going through a rough time, I found Psalm 73

23 Yet I am always with you;
you hold me by my right hand.

24 You guide me with your counsel,
and afterward you will take me into glory.

25 Whom have I in heaven but you?
And earth has nothing I desire besides you.

26 My flesh and my heart may fail,
but God is the strength of my heart
and my portion forever.

Last week was Terrible. But God is my portion. I am on the mend.

Raise your Hand if you haven't blogged since last year!

You can't see me, but I'm raising my hand.

WELL.

Anyway, I'm back in good old Trujillo, soaking up the sun and the 70 plus degree temperatures. This Saturday will be my first beach trip of the summer and I'm sorry if I'm making my winter weather readers a little bit jealous. So if you'd like, you can come visit me and we can go to the beach together....I don't mind going alot.

I'm still more or less recovering from my Christmas Extravaganza (which I don't know about you but to me that seems like it was 100 years ago). It was a good time...restful in the sense that it was soul-nourishing to see a lot of my family and friends...not in the sense of me actually getting rest. What really wore me out was the waking up at 4am on Friday morning and arriving to Trujillo at 5pm Sunday night. Yeah. It was a doozy.

But I did arrive and that's what's important; AND on Sunday, before I went back to Trujillo, I did get the opportunity to visit the kids from our CompArte Peru Music ministry who were in Lima for a musical festival. This is a weeklong music festival that is like a music camp for the kids to develop musically.

As you probably know, since our program is in a rather undeveloped part of Trujillo, the kids we teach wouldnt normally be able to afford this (The registration alone is 70 dollars, and the travel and foods costs are another 55, comparitively, which is really alot of money to spend, and almost an impossible fee for a Porvenir Income- I think I've read that the official minimum wage in Peru is about 500 Soles or $156 monthly) But thanks to many generous donations, we are able to pay the fees for the kids. 2 days before I left however, I received word from Ronald, the program director, that we were short on money for 5 children who wouldn't be able to go, but I am happy to report that thanks to generous donations, all 5 of the children who were not going to be able to go to the Suzuki Music Festival in Lima Peru were able to attend, giving us a total of 21 children!

I don't have any pictures yet, but hopefully will post them soon. Other than that, things here are going well, I'm back to teaching, and back to life in general, although these last six months are shaping up to be a little bit busier than normal as I have been selected to lead the choir for these six months as our normal director Julton is going through his medical internship at a hospital to be a doctor. We'll see how this goes.

Well, I'm gonna go plan some classes, or do some teacher like things, so good luck to all of you northern hemispherers. Hope you stay warm.