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.

Placement for Ecuador

I just got my placement for next month, and though I don't remember all the details,,, (you know the important ones like city names), I do remember the ones that affect me the most.  So, here it is!

• We start off in Quito for Debrief but leave for the countryside on the 4th of Dec.
• In the country we are in a town that starts with an L but I don't remember it.  About 25 hours south of Quito.
• We are living and working at an Orphanage for special needs kids.
• We will have access to a full kitchen, washer/dryer, and hot showers!  (IMPORTANT DETAILS RIGHT!?!?!)  I really don't know what to do with myself, I am so excited.
• Midway through the month, we head back to Quito and stay at a branch of the same orphanage there to work until just after Christmas.

And there you have it!  More info to come surely. :-)

Google Docs?

I am in no way tech savy...but I think I just made a Google Docs PDF of my current position as a missionary and shared it here.  We will find out if the link works.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B8yfRJBvA8GRSTFVVmFFMndOLVU/view?usp=sharing


If not, I screen shotted it below and it's probably too small to read.

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!

Thankful for the Random Things

I have been spending a good deal of my free time reading the book, “One Thousand Gifts”.  It is a book about how thankfulness may be the key to living a fulfilling life.  And in the book, the author writes down all the random things she is thankful for, until she gets to the number 1000.

I myself am on day three of my own thankfulness challenge, and being only at item number37, I can already see a shift in my perspective.  I am very pleased with this, so I will share some little things, serious and goofy, that made my heart smile this week.

•  A thunderstorm came upon us quickly and halted all cobble laying efforts. So a group of us decided to play volleyball with our host instead. (We won…haha, so church league volleyball definitely paid off!)  
•   Quiet time one morning lead me to a revelation in Romans 8.  “He who did not spare his own Son, but gave Him up for us all- how will He not also, along with Him, graciously give us all things?”  This gave me assurance that God has already given us the best, so how can I expect Him to give any less now.
•    After hitching a ride with our ministry host to Coroico, we had one task to do as payment.  Dispose of the seven bags of nasty bathroom garbage that shared a truck bed with us the way there.  In my broken Spanish, I thought our host told us to put them up the hill in a truck.  But he really said in the brick dumpster up the hill.  So after we left the garbage in some random man’s truck, our stunned host approached us embarrassed, “Just go to the plaza now…don’t change it, maybe he will come back and be surprised!” OH NO!  We had one job! HA HAHA!
•   Hand Washed sheets on the line, butterflies on my tent, and movie night with popcorn also make me smile. 

Counting the blessings with thanksgiving sure make the heated/swollen bug bitten appendages, wet/sleepless nights, rice and beans for every meal, “where is that smell coming from?” moments, soreness and all MUCH MORE ENDURABLE.  Bring all things to the Lord in Prayer and Petition, WITH THANKSGIVING!  Thank you Lord!

Not so Restful Days of Rest

The View From Our Hostel

I am typing at a Hostel here in La Paz, Bolivia.  We are in a time called 'Debrief' which is a time to rest before our next ministry.  We get about 4 of these this year.  We have meetings and sessions, but also some freetime.  So in my freetime I chose not to rest, but to have an adventure!  Of course...haha.

I set out with two friends to climb a mountian.  The elevation at the peak was approx 17,000 ft and we could feel it with every step.  A British lady in our hiking group gave us some coca leaves for the altitude (its the leaf of the cocaine plant).  We´d chew and rest them in the side of the mouth which helped a lot for the headaches.  I made a little video at the peak which I will eventually put on my mission blog at http://carolineritchey.theworldrace.org if it ever decides to load.

After that we were scheduled to go to a valley to see the ecosystem differences due to the elevation, but the bus broke down a block from our hostel, and with the headaches we all had, it was better to take it easy that afternoon.  So we left the group.  Which was a good thing, because God redeemed that afternoon.

I was given the chance to walk the markets here in La Paz with two ladies that I am blessed to have gotten to know a little better.  We had coffee at a little coffee shop and got to see some parades in the street.  Overall, a very good day of rest in which I did no rest at all.  HA HA!

Our Group´s Shady Coca Leaf Dealings

Making a Snow Angel in the Andes...CHECK!

LLAMASSSS!!

Our Broken Bus in the Hail.  The End!