The Day I Was An Illegal Immigrant

Soooo....You know those times when you are sitting at a bus station in Peru close to the border, and you just got off of a 21 hour bus ride.  And your brain doesn't seem to function right?

Well that is the state our minds were in when we agreed to pay the equivalent of $2 a person to these random bus station guys to take us to the next town across the border into Ecuador in mini-vans.  We thought that everything was kosher up until they blew through customs and immigration on some back road to drop us off at another shady bus station in Ecuador.  Upon their departure, and our subsequent confusion, we realized that our bus buddies didn't have passports...so that's why they took the back road.  We however had no intention of staying in-country illegally, and thus began the search for the border...

I didn't really search.  I sat on my pack eating the last Oreos I had from civilization (you know the chocolate ones with chocolate inside.)  Our fearless leaders found us a bus that would take us to customs...a legit one this time.  And we hopped on with all our gear.  Well only half could fit on so the other half...me included, accidentally commandeered a regular city transport to the border.  The bus driver made us apologize and thank the patrons on board for the route change.

Once to the border we legally "exited" Peru on paper, and legally entered Ecuador.  But for an hour and a half, I was an illegal immigrant, with my Oreos and an apple I smuggled in on my journey.

Once that was all sorted we took a supposed-to-be 12 hour bus ride to Quito, the capital.  But, the crazies who were driving got us there in 10 hours.  I recall taking turns so fast that people and luggage fell, and I recall almost going into a ditch on the wrong side of the road.  However, I am safely in Quito.

So far, I accompanied some of our guys to breakfast, to a large lookout over the city, and to two markets, a park, and the cheapest burgers I had in forever (here's to not getting sick off of street food!)  Our debrief starts tomorrow bright and early so I believe I will take it easy for now.

Todos Para Cristo

This is just  a short clip from the Todos Para Christo Youth Retreat here at our church in Huanuco.  More info to come soon once I get organized now that I have my little PC repaired...yay!

(Ps.  Don't forget to Check Out My New Fundraiser at carolineritchey.theworldrace.org and possibly win a handcrafted good from Peru/Ecuador)

The Misadventures of Caroline in Peru

First of all, Lima is quite a city, and I think I love it quite a bit.  It is very modern and international.
  So here are a mix of stories that I will share with you from my two days here.

First of all, we went to a Peruvian Chinese restaurant with a couple of our guys expecting to enjoy a new culinary experience.  And we got it!  The man didn't speak English or Spanish.  Only Chinese so I was limited to hello, thank you, and apple.  Which I said none of because I was being shy.  Through guessing off the menu, one of our boys almost ate chicken lung fried rice.  Luckily the man brought us out a little lung before frying it up, just to double check.

After my fried rice, mixed meat, and pineapple, we met Gloria and her husband at a Duleria.  That is a bakeshop. We talked for a good hour, prayed for her, ate really good snacks, and she joked a lot with us about cooking for our missionary boyfriends.  Later the next day it turns out that she was asking other foreigners if  "Carolina" was coming back.

The next morning I had a little chat with the Lord about what it means to grow.  Growth is sacrificing comfort and control to become what you can become.  And I have to stop acting like a victim just because I am uncomfortable.

For lunch I met up with my friend Alice, who said she would eat anywhere with me given that it wasn't seafood.  She wanted an authentic little place off of the main street.  I remembered one that my team and I passed coming back from the coastline yesterday so I walked her about 20 mins away from the main town to a restaurant called "Restuarante Rusticana".  Which turned out to be a seafood place.  OOPPPSSS!  She was a good sport though and we went in for Ceviche and Lobster Fried Rice.  But, the lobster fried rice ended up being a soup with something that looked like tripe floating in it.  We couldn't stop laughing at our position of helplessness in ordering.  And we enjoyed a drink made of dark rice that smelled like potpourri and tasted like a fruit.  (PS the floating tripe like thing was an egg and we named the dish "no se que es eso pero no es queso" even though it tasted like Velveeta cheese and there had to have been lobster in it somewhere.)

After our leadership training today, we had some laundry shop mix ups where I ended up with a bag of someone else's laundry and then I headed off to a Korean Restaurant with a teammate.  I would have never expected anything like this past few days after our long seclusion in the jungle...but here you have it.  :-)  I am so blessed!