Smile because it happened...

Well...I'm here in North America.  And if I am being honest with myself and all of you, I am vacillating between being mildly OK with the idea of starting a new life in the states and mildly despondent about it all.  It'll be an adjustment, and a difficult one, but as we all know, anything that's difficult is usually worth doing, and as Jamesson has been continually reminding me that I am a child of Christ, I have nothing to worry about.

So with a new chapter in my life outside of Peru, I will be ending this blog with this post and a few final thoughts about Peru.  I will be starting a new blog at www.usgillian.blogspot.com and continuing electronically with the next chapter of my life at that web address.

I just wanted to share a few thoughts though about my time in Peru.  Actually, one thought in particular that I've been meaning to share for awhile now but just never got around to it.

In the past whenever I went to the US for Christmas, I would often find myself answering people's questions about cultural differences, climate differences, personality differences, etc.  I think that's a common curiosity when you travel, to identify the differences from your social/personal/cultural norms.  From there, a person can make their own personal judgments about those differences.  Sometimes those differences can seem better or worse to an individual; experts say that the key to culturally adjusting well is to not view differences as better or worse, but just different.  And the truth is that if you take a generalized view of US culture and Peruvian culture, yes there are many differences.  There are many things that can be slightly different or even completely opposite, but for me, I think one of the things that always struck me the most about living in another culture, and one of the things I loved seeing the most was just how different people aren't.

Ok, there is a language difference, and a difference in societal values, and other differences, but seeing the similarities is just as easy.  You can see it in the way friends will spend time with each other, laughing, and joking around; the way a mother will comfort her crying child, or the way a grandfather will take care of and teach his young grandson life lessons while on an outing; the way that schools teach national pride to their students; the way a bad day affects a person; the way tragedy can strike at any moment; and the way that family and friends will support and comfort a person when it does strike.  These moments, these life situations, some are simple some are life-altering, but at the core of these moments and situations are people, people who at the root are the same, no matter their culture.  A person's country, language, family, and society can shape his or her world views and general behavior, but at the end of the day, a person is still just a person; and a person is in need of love and friendship and respect, and a feeling of security, and most of all, grace. 

That's been my favorite part of spending the last three years living a life of "differences;" finding out that we're not so different at all.

Well. I guess that's it for this blog...I hope the next blog will chronicle a chapter in my life just as blissfully life-changing as this last one.

Peru, te dejo con un corazon contento...Hasta luego
www.us.gillian.blogspot.com

3 days left...

Well...I have three days left.  I haven't even lifted a finger in order to pack. 

Perhaps I am living in denial?  Probably.  

Today was Easter Sunday and also happened to be my last Sunday in Peru, worshiping with my hermanos y hermanas here in Trujillo.   I didn't cry...not in front of everyone anyway. 

I know this post is all over the place, but so is my brain, and I did wake up for a 5:30 sunrise service and did not get a nap in afterward. 

Well...I wish I could tell you more about what I'm feeling, but I'm not so sure myself.  So with that, I bid you an absentminded adieu.

Stop the Presses!

Presenting my niece...Clara Jeanne Baikie, Baby extraordinaire
(Ok, you can shower the family with congratulations now)

O day of rest and gladness...

One of my favorite parts of Sundays has always been the music (go figure), and I have a very special place in my heart for hymns. Rich lyrics, rich music...you can't go wrong! Actually, it's one of the reasons I got to have some pretty close ties with the Presbyterians which led me to living in Peru.

Growing up in a traditional Lutheran church and attending a fundamental Baptist school helped me to successfully (albeit unknowingly) evade the majority of Christian contemporary music, and instead become quite familiar with traditional hymns.

When I first went away to college and was trying out the different university ministries, I generally liked the teaching time, but I hated the worship time. I didn't know any of the songs which were all contemporary! But then one fateful Tuesday, I went to Reformed University Fellowship (RUF). And it was only in RUF that I felt right at home during the worship time, where hymns are not only sung, but esteemed. Older hymns are often sung to more modern tunes, and a good chunk of the hymns I grew up singing appeared before my very eyes on the projector screen.

To make a very long rabbit trail a little shorter, I stayed with RUF for four years, and went on two missions trips to Trujillo, Peru which, of course, led me to this very moment sitting in Peru typing this very blog entry.

Anyway, the whole point of this post is to pass along one of my favorite hymns of all times and to wish you a very happy week. Enjoy!

Modern Invention I'm happy I don't live without...

oh, Skype.

How you touch my life.

what would I do without you?

I certainly wouldn't make international phone calls for scandalously low prices.

People from the United States most definitely wouldn't call me while I'm in Peru.

I clearly couldn't telephonically introduce Jamesson to my family's antics while on a conference call to my mom, dad, and brother, sister-in-law and the baby who doesn't want to make a debut until next week apparently.

And I certainly could not set up phone interviews with potential employers.

Skype. You, sir, are fantastic.

A dream is a wish your heart makes?

If Cinderella isn't full of it, then my heart wishes that Hawaii would establish a Peruvian inspired transportation system.

I don't know what the deal was, but last night I had about 5 crazy dreams. Lots of odd mashed together bits. I don't remember them all well, but I definitely vividly recall that in one of them, I was in a micro (click here if you need a crash course in Peruvian transportation) that was traveling all up the coast of Oahu.

The only reason I knew it was Oahu was because of the wooden sign we passed on the way that said "Welcome to Oahu"

I need to stop eating Pollo Broaster before I go to bed.

I've been here before...

Same feelings, same attitude, different environment.

I'm in that "moving but not really going anywhere yet" stage.

The first giant uphill climb of the roller coaster before the big drop. It's almost as if I hear the clinking of the chains and the track right now.

Nope, that's just the sound of the construction workers next door.

I'm less than one month away from completely uprooting my life as I've known it for the past 3 years. Part of me feels like I should write about what I'm thinking about all this, and just have that cathartic experience. Then other part of me says "eh, why? You wrote about this when you left Colorado for South Carolina, and then when you left South Carolina for Peru?"

Am I nervous? YES! Am I worried? YES! Am I excited? YES!

Is this a Quarter-life crisis?
Come now, let's not be dramatic.

It's just that same old familiar unfamiliarity. This time with a little bit of Spanish thrown in the mix.

When my spirit grows faint within me, it is you who know my way.
Psalm 142:3

Did I forget to mention?

Well...I thought this was common knowledge, but since 5 or 6 jaws of people I know pretty well have dropped in the last week when they heard this, I figured maybe it's not so commonly known, sooo, here's what you should know.

My time in Peru is coming to end. And it's sooner rather than later.

More specifically, it's April 7th.

Ok let me explain. I know that alot of people thought I would never leave Peru because I love it so much (which I still do); but alas, the trifecta of reasons are pulling me away.

First- My brother and his wife are having a baby in oh, a week. The baptism is April 11th, and since I am about to be the world's best aunt, I of course, would not and can not miss this for the world (even the Peruvian world). I'm so excited to be seeing my family again and for such a momentous occasion too!

Second, my brother is also finishing seminary which means he will be getting his pastoral call soon. I will of course be present for this momentous occasion, along with a few other momentous familial occasions that I want to be present for.

Third, (and this is the kicker) those vexing student loans are shrieking at me, demanding payment; almost like the sounds of a shrill alarm clock ripping you away from a blissful dream. The thing is, while non-profit work in a third world country has been amazing, it hasn't allowed me to make payments on my students loans, and I can't put them off any longer.

The next month will most likely be filled with posts related to thoughts of leaving, possibilities for the future, pleas for a job, and alot of nostalgia while, bittersweetly, I will be bidding adieu to my dear Peru on April 7th. Sad to be Leaving, Happy to have all the memories.

Just thought you should know...

My friend Giac

Yesterday was the giant birthday bash of my friend Giacomo. "Who is Giacomo?" you ask.

Why....he's only the coolest kid in the world.

Height- average
Build- average
Personality- larger than you've ever seen.

Giacomo (named for Puccini, of course) Serrano belongs to Ronald and Tatiana and makes up One Sixth of the best family in the world. Giacomo, like everyone in his family has extraordinary musical talent and plays the cello, piano, and, in addition to many other songs, can sing the entire Black Eyed Peas "I gotta feeling" without actually being able to speak English. I've told him many a time that He's the best English singer I know who doesn't know any English. He's sort of the middle child but he wouldn't dare let you think that he can be forgotten in any way.

Giacomo and I bond over many things. Cello, Scrabble (in English and Spanish), and music, but one of our favorite pastimes is cooking. Giacomo is going to be a chef, and probably be the next Gaston Acurio, Peru's most famous chef. And knowing Giacomo, he'll be even bigger. He loves to cook, bake, eat, and learn about everything related to food. We watch cooking shows together, and then practice recipes. Giacomo can make alfajores that will knock your socks off, and at the age of 11, he even realized that he could make a little extra spending money by selling them. His dad plays for the Trujillo symphony, and Giacomo would accompany Ronald to rehearsals so that he could sell the cookies during the symphony's break. He made quite the profit for an 11 year old's pocket.

But that's Giac. Nothing is done halfway, because he knows that putting your entire soul into something makes it all the more enjoyable.

Thursday Night Musings of a girl with everything and nothing to talk about

Sometimes I feel like I can't keep up with myself. All these changes that I have gone through, am going through, and will be going through seem to hit me all at once, and I think- What are you doing Gillian? Why on earth would you get involved in all the things you've gotten involved with in your life? Why would you leave your home to go to a university on the other side of the country; and then why would you leave your home and university again to go live on the other side of the equator? Why did you pick the major you did? Why did you leave the career path to do non profit work for 3 years? Why are you leaving that life soon too? Why why why? And these questions start to weigh on me, and I think...Gillian, You don't make any sense.

But then, I remember why I did all that and why I will do a lot of other crazy things in the future that may not ever make sense to me, let alone anyone else.

God chose this path for me. I am exactly where God wants me to be right now. Everything that has happened in my life has been ordained by God and I all I have to do is enjoy it and enjoy Him. And then my new question becomes "Why are you even asking why?"

So enjoy life I will. I will enjoy the small things, the quiet moments, moments like walking by a beautiful garden that smells of roses and honeysuckle; listening to the summer sounds in my neighborhood; holding a puppy; going to the beach; short friendly conversations with people that I don't know, but already consider them friends.

I will enjoy the big moments too, the life-changers; the graduations, the goodbyes, the moves, the not knowing where I will be a year from now, the not knowing where I will be two months from now, the milestones of new family members, new friends, and everything in between.

And by golly, I will enjoy it....whether I like it or not.

A woman happily in love, she burns the souffle. A woman unhappily in love, she forgets to turn on the oven.

Precisely one week ago, I was sitting with a large group of people from Memphis on a mission trip explaining about the great weather in Trujillo, and going on and on about how it almost never rains here.

Today, I mopped up every last one of those words inside my house.

Thanks to El Niño (which can be oh so fantastically explained here) and/or various other meteorological reasons that I just don't understand, it has been raining for the better part of the last 7 days. Today, being the worst of it all...for me anyway.

See here's the thing, Trujillo. You are a fantastic city...you really are, but if there were some sort of a survivor reality show competition for cities to see who is the best, strongest, and most prepared to face challenges, you would be kicked off no later than week 2.

No Storm Drains + Adobe/Porous Concrete Houses + Flat roofed houses + Open courtyards because it "never" rains here = Me waking up at 7am to a flooded house.

Water was Eeeeeeverywhere. I wish I had taken a picture of the army of buckets we had trying to catch all the drips, but I was too busy mopping up what was quickly turning into a new Peruvian reservoir to take a picture. Rough morning. Luckily, the heavens decided to stop being such a bully and it stopped raining around 11. Heck, the sun even came out a bit for a few hours to make matters a little better.

And just to show that no day is completely bad, after we dumped out the umpteenth bucket of water, I was able to sit down and watch Sabrina. The 1954 Audrey Hepburn/Humphrey Bogart classic that makes any problem in life disappear for 113 minutes while you get caught up in boat neck shirts, fedoras, schmaltzy nostalgic music, and the way that Mr. Bogart pronounces the words "To-mah-ta Juice." It's truly delightful and makes me want to start using antiquated phrases and memorize alot of one-liners so that I can always deliver the most perfect thing to say.

(One of which would serve very well to end this blog post...Sigh...I need Humphrey)

You learn something new every February...

Well...It's that time of year again. Actually one of the annual highlights of the past 3 years that I have lived here in Trujillo.

The fantastic team from Independent Presbyterian Church in Memphis, TN is back in Trujillo conducting a large week-long medical and dental campaign in some areas where quality health care is needed the most and many times not received due to a lack of financial resources.

I truly love translating for this team. There are some amazing people who do some incredible work in the short amount of time they are here and many times make a huge difference for alot of really great Peruvians.

This year has been a little different translationally speaking (yes, I know that's not a word...just go with it ok?). In the past two years, I floated around more translating for triage, doctors, dentists, and filling in wherever. This year though I've been translating for one of the dentists, Dr. Paul Gerhardt, all week at the clinic and learning much more than I ever hoped to, or ever thought was necessary about dentistry, in English and in Spanish.

Translating has been good, but a definite brain work-out as I try to figure out what some obscure words might be in Spanish. Words like Amalgam, Glass Ionomer, Self Etching Acid, Two-pronged instrument, Burr (the little drillbits they use), and other fun words like those. Those and the occasional easy words that escape me, like "chin". Don't worry, I know it now. (Mentón)

The good thing is that I've managed to gain a whole new vocabulary/skill set, and it turns out that my recent wisdom tooth extraction helped me to gain a good base of dental terms. Who'd have thought? I will tell you this, though- As interesting as this week has been, I do not regret my decision to leave behind the former dream I had at age 4 to become a dentist. But you know, just in case you ever find yourself in a Spanish speaking country needing to the visit the dentist and not knowing what in the world he's saying, give me a call...I'll translate for you. Except the word for "chin"...you should know that one by now.

Well, it's been one week since Dr. Jorge ice picked my impacted wisdom tooth right out of my mouth but I think that I now have some semblance of normalcy. Normalcy being the ability to open my mouth, talk, and not have a severely inflamed right side. It's still a little tender, but I'm just so happy because I actually was able to eat my entire (soft) solid meal yesterday. It took me about an hour to chew carefully and slowly, but doggone it I did it. Pasta never tasted so good. Which brings me to this post's subject.

I really love food.

Alot.

I love eating and trying new things and enjoying food with friends and good company and feeling satisfied after a hearty meal. There really is no substitute. So when I was banished to the land of milkshakes and water last week, I really felt the hole in my heart...and stomach. Ok ok, I probably did lose a couple of kilos, but still, there is nothing like a heartwarming meal to make you feel good all over. So anyway, all that is just because I wanted to share with you guys one of my favorite websites in the whole world. This is also the website that I stared at all of last week while isolated tears streamed down my face because I knew it would be awhile before I could partake in any of it.

Food Gawker- God's gift to the World Wide Web



This website is ah-mazing. It takes all the food blogger posts and consolidates them into a beautiful slideshow of wonder and magnificence that lets you click on one of the picture and be taken directly to the recipe. Enjoy!
Just make sure you have a granola bar near you...you will get hungry

A Wednesday Afternoon Haiku

Wisdom Tooth removed.
Now, Frozen chicken nuggets
help my inflamed face.

thank you.

Things I hoped would never happen.

1) I've always hoped that I could maintain my perfect record of no broken bones.
2) I've always hoped to never need stitches
3) I've always hoped that I would be one of the lucky people who never needed to have her wisdom teeth taken out.

Son of a Gun. 1 out of 3.

My tooth started hurting on Saturday...specifically one my wisdom teeth which were never taken out because they never gave me problems and appeared like they wouldn't come in. I was so happy for this. The thought of having a tooth extracted from below the gums always made my timbers shiver, so I was very happy to assume that it would never give me problems.

Wrong.

Flash forward to today, when I woke up at 2 am in a lot of pain. I had to wait until morning because there are no 24 hour dentists in Trujillo, but I probably would have gone had there been. I got x-rays taken this morning, and sure enough my lower right wisdom tooth (in spanish, tercer molar or diente de juicio) was completely impacted and pushing on my other teeth. Yowzas. So I luckily got to see the oral surgeon right away, who shot me up with a couple stabs of a local anesthesia, and began the process.

Not a fun process mind you. And because the tooth was so deeply rooted, I spent over an hour listening to the interchanging (not-so) soothing sounds of a drill plus suction, and watching what appears to be a fancy ice pick get shoved into the tooth and cracking around. Not pleasant.

I had to start singing songs in my head to distract me. And after the surgery, stitches, and all the other hubbub that goes along with a wisdom tooth extraction, I shed a few tears because I really hated that one of the things I never wanted to have happen, came true....and it hurt.

Positives: My wisdom tooth is out, which hopefully means my jaw will stop popping so much...does anyone know if this is true or not? Maybe just wishful thinking? Either way, at least my teeth won't hurt after everything is healed

I had a delicious chocolate milkshake..and only that for my sustenance today...not bad.

Despite the fact that my dreams were crushed (along with my molar) about not having stitches, I can now say that I have only ever had two surgeries in my entire life (A Frenectomy last year, and now this one) They have both been oral surgeries, and they both have taken place in Peru, which has proven to be the land of firsts for me. At least it's a good story to tell.

Anyone have any good suggestions for recovery?

So my enamorado's uncle has a farm up in the mountains of northern Peru, where they grow rice, mango and avocado.

Some guys might bring a gal flowers...

I get giant boxes of delicious Peruvian mangos!

Here's what I did with them-
Coconut Shrimp & Mango Salsa
Mango Crumb Cake

Random Thoughts.

I just got back to Peru recently after spending 3 weeks in the states. I find that when I return, there is not really a pattern to my thoughts, it's like someone uprooted me, shook me around for a bit, and all my normal in order thoughts got jumbled and mixed around, so now there is a veritable smorgasbord that may not have so much rhyme or reason. Therefore, this post won't really have a lot of rhyme or reason.

• One thing that I recently discovered was that thanks to Denver being awesome in all it does, including it's public library system, I can check out e-books for freeee! I'm currently reading Mirror, Mirror by Gregory Maguire (same author of Wicked). I only wish I had found this 2.5 years ago.
• I also found out tonight that I whisper as I type. Everything I type I whisper. Weird habit, I know. I don't know where I picked that one up from.
• It's been great being back in Peru, I already have eaten delicious Peruvian food, gone to a friend's birthday party, ridden in a few micros, spent time with one of my favorite families, and have watched a suitcase explode in my room...and have not cleaned it up.
• I was invited to a wedding and the couple has the best wedding invitation I've ever seen

This past time of me being in the states was not so much culturally shocking in a very obvious way, but I think my subconscious was going crazy.

This manifested itself in my dreams, which were some of the nuttiest, consecutive crazy dreams I've ever had. Just to sample: one of the first nights I had a dream that involved College and my old professor who made many a student's lives hell, the Peruvian theater, Denzel Washington, Goblins, making homemade donuts, and letting them bake under some very large christmas trees which were all growing indoors. This was all in one dream.

My intercontinental limbo also was very evident when I woke up this morning, and literally had no idea which country I was in. Sigh...one day I'll figure where in the world my place is.