People you should know

Meet my Roomie.
This is Heather Campbell. She is amazing.

A cheesy and uninspired biography of Heather will tell you Heather Campbell is from St. Louis, Missouri. She graduated from Covenant College with a major in Community Development with a focus on teaching English in developing countries.

My version will tell you that Heather Campbell is one of the people I appreciate the most in this world. She will joke around with you about anything. She has the best headband collection I have ever seen. She is fearless. She broke her arm in Peru while jumping on a trampoline. She had her 23rd birthday yesterday, fell for my ridiculous lie and walked right into our surprise party trap. Heather and I spend a lot of time together, and I don't know what I would do without her here. I think that she and I are similar in a lot of ways, but also very different which is good. We often share the same views on things, which makes it wonderful to talk things out with her, but I know that we can also throw down opposing opinions without either of us being offended in the end.

Things I admire about Heather:

• She can talk with anyone, anytime, anywhere.
• She is always comfortable joking around with people and has that amazing ability to put people at ease.
• Heather has spent alot of time living outside of the US (6 months in Mexico and 3 months in the Dominican Republic, and now a year and a half in Peru)
• She is very wise.
• She has the amazing ability to admonish others in a Godly and loving way, something I often fail at.

And last but not least, she's just cool. Heather Campbell = Cool Girl. That's all there is to it.

Conglamo!

My mind's a little bit scattered a I write this post. I have a lot of thoughts running through my head right now, thoughts about work, about people, about life in general, and I can't seem to hold onto any of them for more than a few moments until a new thought about work or people or life seeks attention and distracts me from the previous musing.

I can't even focus enough right now to write a blog post on one subject, so here's the chex party mix version of what's going on with me right now.

Things at SALI are going well- Classes end tomorrow which means that tomorrow night, I will be boarding a bus for Moyobamba, one of the jungle cities of Peru. I do believe this will be my first trip to a jungle. And I also do believe that I need to pack still. As with all "get-aways" I am looking forward to getting away for a few days, although when I return, I know I will have what is known in Spanish as a "montón" (pile) of work to do.

I'm beginning to take on more here in Peru. More with the Music Ministry, more with SALI, and more with general life business. When I was in college, I was what you could probably consider an "over-achiever" I always had a hand in everything and was always on the go. As I begin to put my hand in more things here in Peru, I think I'm beginning to realize that maybe this "over-achiever"ness is just an ineradicable personality trait of mine- I like being busy, I like having the challenge of doing a lot of things, and when I don't do a lot of things, I get bored. Maybe it's silly, but that's the flame that this moth is drawn to.

And the last party mix thought of the evening- The Vonage internet phone has not worked for at least the past week here in Peru. In the good words of the good Martin Luther I ask: "What does this mean?"

Well friends and family, whom I love dearly, it means that because my only reasonable line of communication to the US is broken, I have not been able to call anyone in the states for awhile. Sorry Friends. Sorry family. I miss talking with you. Pray that it gets fixed soon.

And remember you can always send e-mails at gbaikie@gmail.com *

*read: Send me e-mails please*

Reasons

It's Friday. Why do I know this? I know this because I am actually able to type my blog post. And I am able to type my blog post because I am monitoring my students taking their weekly exams. The heat is on as Maria struggles through the many/much section. Alesandra wipes the sweat from her brow as she desperately searches her mind for the rules about making comparisons. Is it noisier? or More noisy? What's the rule?? Jotan has made it to the vocabulary section and crumbles under the pressure. He's weeping in the corner.

Ok not really. My students are all very good and showing English grammar who is boss. They own this language. Classes are going well here, I look forward to February, when we hopefully will have another staff member. We've been fairly short staffed due to many different circumstances, so everyone has been pitching in and working hard to make up for it. Things as you can imagine have been fairly busy.

So there you have it, January has been busy so far, but when you work hard, you also need to have fun. This is what I love about living in Peru. Having fun is a necessary part of life and Peruvians cherish this. One area where I see this clearly is with dancing. I love Dancing. I love dancing despite the fact that I am not a very good dancer. Never have the words "graceful" or "light-footed" been used to describe me. I'm ok with that. I still love to dance. Last night was Thursday and we went to Canana's, a dance joint with an outdoor dance floor and a live band from 11-12. It wasn't planned, but we were just in the mood to dance.

In the states, to go out dancing is somewhat of an event, you need to plan for it, to set aside some weekend to do it. Here in Peru, dancing can be found at thousands of restaurants and it doesn't matter what day it is. You want to dance? Go for it. It's Tuesday night? Let's go to Roky's (think KFC meets Dave and Busters, meets Chuck E. Cheese's) We'll get some good chicken and dance the night away with the live band. Maybe we'll sing some Karaoke afterwards. Why? Just because it's fun. That's the best reason I can think of.

Oh, and also, last night one of our SALI students gave be the best reason ever to learn English.

Me: So Why do you want to learn English, Gaston?

Gaston: Well, I knew a girl from the US and everytime I tried to speak to her, She told me to Kiss her A--. I didn't know what that word meant, so I started learning English. Then I learned what it meant, and I decided that I need to learn English to know when people are saying bad things to me.


Wisdom in it's truest form.

It's Official

She's a Peruvian. Her Peruvian Residency Card says so.

Learn you some English...

Things are in full swing down here in Trujillo. We began our January classes yesterday and with around 150 students who signed up for class, January is shaping up to be a very full month for SALI. Since it's summer here, people have more free time. Other students will continue to enter classes throughout the week, but now, I'm beginning January with 16 new students. At SALI, each class or cycle lasts for one month, and professors stay with their classes for about 4 cycles. I'm very excited to get to know my students better over these next four months. They all seem eager to learn, which is a good thing, because I am eager to teach.

It's truly been great being back. I'm excited to see people I haven't seen in awhile and really just want to make the most of my time. I know that right now, a year and half may seem like a long time to live in a different country, but in the long run, it won't seem so long. So with that, I am content to be back in Peru and content with where God has led me.

Back to the Future...I mean Peru.

I made it! After a 2 day trek that took me from Denver to Atlanta, Atlanta to Lima, and finally Lima to Trujillo using Planes, Trains, and Automobiles. Assuming you count the airport subways as "trains". Either way, I am typing this new blog from my old desk at SALI.

While I was in the Atlanta airport, I wrote in my journal some thoughts about returning to Peru. Care to take a glimpse? Of course you do, it's access to somebody's private thoughts!

It's so very different going to Peru this time. I don't feel like a small child anymore and though I don't know if I'd consider myself a Pro yet about living in Peru, I won't return with eyes opened so wide and overwhelmed by new sights. My ears won't be trying to listen to every last taxi horn, my nose won't be trying to convert every single smell into a permanent memory....or try desperately to block out the bad ones. I will be returning. What a great thing to be able to "return." To go back to something familiar and to be able to walk past a sight and relax because I already know it. The past 6 months have been work. Sometimes hard and not fun work, some work has been a little easier, but to be able to "return" and feel like I have already done the hard work of completely adjusting to something new is a treat. My own personal reward.

So There you have it. I'm excited to be back. Refreshed from the break and very renewed from spending time with my family. I missed them alot, and though I will continue to miss them, it was good to spend time with them . God has blessed me incredibly with the people he's placed in my life. Especially my family, but not just them. With my friends, my friends' families, with my coworkers, my pastors, professors, and a lot more too. I'm very thankful for the people in my life. The way I see it- with such great people, wherever I am, I will always miss somebody. It's one of those facts of life, but I'm thankful that I have a good reason to miss them.