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As I begin this blog post, I'm sitting at a friends house doing laundry and struggling with what I should write. I want to thank everyone who has been reading these posts. Coming back to the States I have almost no money and so many people have offered their houses to stay at. I realize that without my friends and family, I would have nothing, and so I thank you for being there for me.

I'm not sure if it has hit me that I'm gone. I haven't yet fully understood the things that I've learned and the ways that I've grown in Peru. I do know that I have changed. I'm a better man, more patient, more charitable, more faithful. I think I've changed in ways that I'm not fully aware of yet.

The truth is, I feel sad. Peru taught me so much. The gifts that the children of Alegria En El Senor gave me were immeasurable and I could never pay them back. Many of the children are bound to wheelchairs. They have to ask you to feed them, ask you to take them to the bathroom, ask you to do everything for them. Things I take for granted, because I can do them myself. Not only this, but they ask with such great joy. They are mature beyond their years and know how to love life in a way that a big house, fancy car, and millions of dollars could never teach you. We could all learn a lot from them.

My class.

Another of my favorite classes.

The Sodalitium taught me to live out my life in a way that combines my faith and the things I do. I have grown spiritually thanks to the time and effort of countless men and women of the CLM. It is the most important thing that I take back to the States, my faith. It is hard to say goodbye.

Camping! Clockwise from me: Greg, David, Jeff, and Manuel

Bridges: Bringing high-school students to work in the poorest areas of Lima.

I don't know if you can tell, I tried to grow a beard for a while.

At the same time I'm excited to see everyone. I'm excited for Christmas with the family. I'm ready for a change and I'm ready to live in America again. It has been great to see my friends in the last couple days, and I look forward to seeing the rest. Like I said, I would have nothing without my friends and family.

This January I start working at an organization called Christ in the City where I will be serving people who are lost in our society, including Denver's homeless. The goal is to, "provide a service of outreach, striving to meet and live charity with people who have fallen through the cracks of society." I hope you will understand and support me. I am excited to see many of you now that I'm back in CO!

I have so many friends in Peru who I will never forget. You are my family now and I will never forget you.

Salsa Debil

My body decided to be kind of sick today so I'm sitting at home instead of going to work.  It seemed like a perfect time to start writing a blog post.

Last week my sister came to Peru and we toured Iquitos, Macchu Pichu, and Cuzco. I had a great time getting to see new and beautiful parts of Peru. The tour started in the jungle and ended in Lima. It was interesting to see the ridiculous variety of climates this country has to offer.

The jungle was amazing. Iquitos is a relatively small city located in the Amazon of northern Peru. I hadn't been to the Amazon before, and I found it very impressive. Although I had some awareness that the river was large, experiencing it gave me the realization of just how enormous it really is. After landing in Iquitos, we took a 40 minute boat ride to some lodges where we stayed for three days. The lodges had a pet tapir which my sister thoroughly enjoyed (and so did I)!

Tapirs are large herbivores, related to a horse, with really crazy extendable noses.

The lodges were very nice with great meals and great service. The first day we toured the jungle with a guide who was born in the Amazon. He showed us plenty of the jungle including the beautiful, the inspiring, and the deeply distrubing. Actually it made me quite happy I wasn't born in the jungle because almost everywhere you go, something within reach could kill you instantly.

Our tour guide used to play with these as a boy.

Poison dart frogs seem less horrifying.

The next two days we went on boat tours. First we went sightseeing for river dolphins. We could see the dolphins in the distance, but the Amazon is brown and murky and I could only see their backs when they rose to the surface for air. I hadn't known there were dolphins in the amazon and found it pretty cool. After this we went to see a typical tribal village. They were really just normal people dressing up like their great-grandfathers, and they no longer live in their old ways. We blew blow-dart guns and went home for the day. The next days adventure was fishing for piranha, but only one person caught one, and it was a baby.

Boom! Headshot.

Next we headed to the airport to go to Cuzco. The first day in Cuzco was a free day. I took pictures of the nearby churches and different parts of the city. The next morning my sister and I went to see some Incan ruins where a sun temple was built. But first, the most amazing buffet lunch I have ever had.

I actually took a lot more pictures than this.

I almost want to post all of the pictures of the buffet I took but I understand that being there was a lot different than seeing pictures. Maybe I was hungry at the time, but all of the food was ridiculously good. Not only was there every type of food, but there was plenty of it. I felt a little spoiled.

After lunch we went to the sun temple. Some of the stones that the Incas took to the top are multi-ton and unimaginably huge. For some reason I didn't take a picture of those stones. I think it was because a lot of people were there that day.

Pretty impressive with the technology available at the time.

The next day Macchu Pichu! I was excited but when I woke up my sister had a fever and had to stay in Cuzco for the day. So off I went by myself. On the train to Macchu Pichu I met a few interesting folk and three hours later I arrived at Aguas Caliente, the town at the base of Macchu Pichu mountain. It was a beautiful day and I was sad that my sister didn't get to come.

After arriving I was picked up by the guide and took a tour with two Austrian girls. The tour guide herself was pretty average, but Macchu Pichu made up for it by being absolutely amazing. It would have been an amazing place to visit while people still lived there. I took a thousand photos so my sister could experience my day.

Gorgeous.

The tour ended with those typical Macchu Pichu pictures that everyone takes. Then back to the train and back to my sister. On the train back, one of the attendants dressed up as an Incan god, who is known for being a trickster (similar to Loki for the Nords). He was pretty mischievous and even convinced someone to dance with him.

Typical Macchu Pichu picture.

Pretty weird train ride home...

My sister then stayed in Lima for a few days. She got to meet my family and friends. We also visited a free clinic that the Sodalitium uses to serve the poor. Finally we visited the place where I work and she got to meet some of the children in my classroom. Unfortunately it all felt a little short and I wish she could have stayed longer, and gotten to know my friends a bit more. Oh well, maybe we will come back!

Doctor Carl

Less than a month and a half to go. I just spent the last week on medical missions in a town called Ayaviri. Ayaviri is a small mountain town located at just under 13,000 feet. Although the town itself is somewhat unattractive looking, the surrounding area is beautiful.

I wish this picture did justice to the beauty of Ayaviri.

I took a 20 hour bus trip to meet up with around forty-five volunteers to help provide medical care to the citizens. The majority of volunteers were medical professionals in various fields such as OB/GYN, family medicine, and dentistry. Although I had no experience, I became a dental assistant for a day, helping clean tools and watching the dentist pull teeth. Witnessing the doctor pull teeth and put gaping holes in peoples mouths made me not want to be a dentist. Either way, I wish I had taken a picture of doctor Carl. All I can say is, I looked legit. The rest of the days I either escorted people to doctors or guarded the entrance so we didn't become overcrowded with people.

We also didn't want the alpacas getting inside.

The trip itself was very tiring to me but was also extremely rewarding. Over the course of four days we helped 1,300 patients with various illnesses and problems. We also gave out rice, beans, and vitamins to the citizens. The volunteers were extremely generous and giving. Everyone worked hard and did a great job. I had a wonderful time getting to know many of them and am looking forward to seeing them when I get back to the States.

One of the sadder situations that the doctors dealt with is the physical abuse that goes on in the town. Many men treat their wives like property rather than giving them the love that a wife deserves. In towns like Ayaviri, most women are dependent on the men for things like food, shelter, and money. I wish I could see an easy way out of their situations but they often have nowhere else to go.

We went to Mass one of the days and a drunk guy followed us in. He kept talking to two members of our group which was kind of awkward, both because they didn't speak Spanish and because the church was having a funeral. He kept talking really loudly and since he was in the middle of our group everyone kept looking at us. As luck would have it he passed out pretty quickly and didn't wake up until we were leaving.

This church is a great place to party.

After the missions ended some of the volunteers and I had lunch at the Sodalite community and visited the Sodalite farm. They own a number of cows and have a cheese making operation that apparently just became profitable this year. I had some cheese and lunch before taking a six hour bus trip to a town called Arequipa.

Arequipa: A view from my bedroom

Arequipa is also beautiful, located at the bottom of three huge mountains, at least one of which is an active volcano. It made me miss Colorado whose beauty I took for granted. The people of Lima are great, but the weather is ugly and I will be glad to live somewhere else. I spent the night at the apartment of two Sodalite brothers and toured Arequipa in a double-decker bus. That night I went to the theater. When we got home I fell asleep early because I was exhausted from the missions. The next morning one of the brothers and I visited his university as well as a church in the center of town. We had lunch and I got on a bus to come home.

I wanted the volcano to erupt so I could get a better picture.

The church we visited.

Tiny bridge we drove across. Sketch? Only during earthquakes.

 Can't wait to see you all in America. Hope everyone is doing well!

Going home.

 

Children

As always, I haven't wrote in a while. The last few weeks have been filled with many wonderful things. A week ago I went camping with some of the guys from the Church here. We took a five hour bus ride out of Lima into the mountains. Rumor had it that we could find waterfalls near a town called Matucana.

Apparently, the rumors were true

After arriving to town we went to a small shop for lunch. I was immensely grateful that the soup with chicken feet went to David and not myself. Immediately after lunch, we hiked into the mountains to search for the waterfalls. Before making it to the waterfalls I met a really cute foreign girl, pictured below.

Seriously, she's pretty cute.

Davids delicious soup.

After an hour long hike we made it to the waterfall. After deciding that we didn't want to camp around other people, we hiked farther into the woods looking for a more isolated area. The best area we could find was a rocky beach next to a stream and ten foot waterfall.

The stars were absolutely beautiful. I had forgotten how much I missed staring at the stars. Everything about camping reminded me how small we are and how beautiful the Earth can be. I was so happy to be there sharing it with a bunch of great guys. The mountains also reminded me of how much I have missed/how much I'm looking forward to going snowboarding.

We spent the night talking and cooking chorizos. I didn't sleep much that night due to the uncomfortable nature of sharp rocks. The next morning we went hiking before heading back to Lima. 

Notice the extremely comfortable ground.

Fast forward to the next Friday. The school I work at took a trip to the beach. It was hard to push around the wheelchairs because they immediately became stuck in the sand. Still, the students had a great day which is what matters most.

Immediately after coming back from the beach, I left for a town called San Bartolo for a three day retreat. I wish I had pictures from San Bartolo because the sunset over the water was breathtaking. This weekend was spent with a focus of understanding my vocation in life. Trying to understand what God is calling me to do with my life. I can feel myself becoming more accepting of my religious views, which will likely come across to others as being extreme since I don't see a point in hiding who I am anymore. There was a great goodness in spending so much time in prayer and thought this weekend and although I am not aware of my path in life, I feel like the fog is lifting.

This Sunday we woke up and went to Mass and then went to the beach. After winning a game of ultimate frisbee due to some teammates who were far superior to me, I went swimming in the ocean. Last year in Costa Rica, I almost drowned trying to surf in some huge waves. I'd forgotten how powerful the ocean can be. Mother nature decided to reteach my a life lesson by dragging me across the bottom of the ocean with a giant wave. After what seemed like forever, I surfaced only to face another huge wave crashing over me. This one pushed me towards the beach where I was happy to stay closer to the shore. Although it wasn't as bad as Costa Rica, just the thought of those memories upset me enough to quit swimming. It was a great reminder that I'm not invincible.

In the coming week I'm leaving for a small town called Ayaviri where I will be going on medical missions with a bunch of Americans, including a family I know from Boulder. I'm really excited! Now I'm going to finish listening to this Taylor Swift song and hopefully Skype my parents.

Miss everyone!

This Ceviche Tastes Fishy...

I skipped work the other day.

I love what I do. I love the kids I work with and the place I work at. But last week I realized that my days were blurring together. I think when it becomes hard to distinguish what you did on Thursday versus what you did on Monday, it's time to stop and take a break.

Two more gringos came to Peru within the last few days. One is potentially looking at joining the Sodalitium, and the other is doing a similar thing as me. Since I was already thinking about taking a day off of work, one of the brothers suggested we all go together to explore Lima.

I had a great day. We left in the morning, with the goal of making it to the Pacific. The buses were full as usual. The first part of Lima we traveled to is called Miraflores. There is a touristy mall there with lots of gringo people walking around. We had drinks at a restaurant located on a small cliff overlooking the ocean.

Drinks above the ocean.

The view was pretty cool

Afterwards we found a path down to the beach and helped make America look bad. One of the guys wanted a photo of this large crab that was in a crevice. We decided a good way to coax it out of hiding was to throw coins at it. The crab didn't budge. I'm sure the security guard was looking at us and thinking about how stupid we were, but sometimes the risk is worth the reward. In this case, it wasn't.

Mo Money Mo Problems

We then took a taxi to this food festival located at the center of Lima. After eating a dish called tacu tacu we were immediately assaulted by a camera crew for a local television station. I attempted to use Spanish to badly explain why I was in Peru. They then asked if we wanted to try ceviche, a typical Peruvian dish that I don't care for. I said no, but they convinced one of us, so we followed the camera crew to a random food stand. After the ceviche was eaten, they proceeded to unveil a wonderful surprise. The ceviche had actually been cow testicles. All I can say is that I filled rest of the day with ball jokes. We also got to eat shark (tastes like fish) in a different food stand. Then we headed home.

That's all for now. I can't believe I'm halfway done with my trip. Can't wait to see you all when I get back!

Dogs - 2, Carl - 0.

It's 1:06am right now, Thursday night, and I can't sleep. I've been avoiding writing a blog post because I want to post picture of the things I've been doing, but I can't. A friend let me borrow her camera before coming here (thank you Chelsea!) but unfortunately the cord that provides power for the camera was chewed up by a dog when I went on missions a month ago (sorry Chelsea!). A few weeks ago I spend a full day going to every Radio Shack in Lima looking for this stupid cord. After six other camera shops I ended up at the store that specifically sells Chelsea's camera, only to find out they didn't sell the cords or know where I could find one. Needless to say, I decided to celebrate the end of that day at a delicious crepe shop. My parents will be sending the correct cord through the mail.

Today was a national holiday for St. Rose of Lima and I had the day off. A few of the brothers asked if I wanted to play a game called Civilizations which is this ridiculously long board-game, similar to Risk mixed with Settlers of Catan. We are about nine hours in and are 75% of the way through the game! I think we are finishing on Sunday.

Warning: This game takes longer than Jumanji, and is otherwise very similar.

The game is very addicting to me and I think part of the reason I can't sleep is because I can't stop thinking about it. I believe we will finish the game tomorrow or the next day. The second reason I think I can't sleep is because when I got in bed earlier it was wet. Not the whole bed, just a nice round circle that the dog seemed to think needed some watering. Luckily I took a photo of the dog my first week so I can show you the culprit.

Don't let the cuteness fool you.

I changed the sheets earlier and was somehow wide awake. Tomorrow I will be tired. In fact I'm tired right now and I'm going to finish this post later.

It's tomorrow and I'm tired. I got pretty frustrated at work trying to explain math to a volunteer who both didn't speak my language and was absolutely sure of her answer. It was only in the aftermath that I realized that I should have dropped trying to explain it pretty much right away. I think we both ended the day frustrated with each-other when there was no reason to be.

My sister is coming to Peru in November and I'm going to go to Machu Picchu with her. I actually haven't traveled or explored Lima in the two months I've been here. I've been content working with the students at Alegria En El Senior and haven't felt the need to leave. I think that it's important to travel since I am in Peru and it's possible I won't return. I'd like to visit a city called Ica where they have sand dunes and an oasis. I also want to visit Lake Titicaca because they have a man made island that the natives have lived on for centuries. Apparently it smells kinda funky because they make it out of these reeds that need to be replaced every few months since the island is constantly rotting. I will post pictures if I ever make it there.

Why Peru?

I think it’s time to admit something to you. I’m religious. Even people who are fairly close to me don’t know much about this aspect of my life. I’ve kept it to myself, partly because some stupid Christians gave a bad name to religion, and partly because I never liked it when some stranger told me all about how much I needed the bible. 

Sometimes you think you have good intentions when in reality, you're an idiot.

My faith is fairly new. I can’t tell you I have an expansive knowledge of the bible or that I can answer all of your questions. What I do know is that I believe there is a God. I believe that there is a greater reason we were put on Earth than to just exist. And for various reasons, I believe in the Catholic Church.

This blog post began with the goal of explaining to you why I’m in Peru. Like my religion, I've kept quiet about exactly why I am here. I believe that most people think I just want to have a grand adventure before I settle down and get a ‘real job’. Although there is a partial truth to this, it is not the whole story. I am in Peru volunteering with the Sodalitium Christianae Vitae, a religious brotherhood. You can read more about them on Wikipedia. I was introduced to a Sodalite in Colorado. He gave me the opportunity to come to Peru after I realized I wasn’t going to be happy with any of the jobs I had applied for. In my entire life I don’t remember having a career I’ve always wanted or a field I wanted to work in. In college I remember truly enjoying exactly two classes. One of which would provide me a career path I don’t want, and the other would damn me to 40 hours a week in front of a computer, both of which I cannot currently accept. I am no longer willing to waste my life in some mediocre pursuit of a high-paying position with ‘job security’. In fact, screw job security. In my opinion, if you love what you do, you won’t do bad enough to need job security. And despite present day logic, I am also not willing to spend 5+ years job hopping until I settle for the best of what I found.

Indeed

At the risk of sounding like one of those crazy religious people, I will return to why I’m in Peru. I’m in Peru because in my experience, the Sodalitium does a great job of providing the questions, help, and support needed to find a path in life. Again, I believe there is a greater reason we were put on Earth. If this is true, God has a plan for me, assuming I'm willing to accept it. The reason I'm in Peru is because I see the Sodalitium as the key to finding Gods plan for me. I have surrounded myself with good, religious people. Though the world has proven that good and religious don’t necessarily go hand in hand, it does in the Sodelitium. I am in Peru asking great people to help me find myself. I’m attempting to avoid that mid-life crisis, where so many people wake up and realize that they’ve done nothing worthwhile in their life. I am looking for direction before diving headfirst into my currently unknown vocation.

In the end, I don’t want my life to be a grand adventure. I want my life to have meaning. Many of the people I love in this world are not religious. I am not writing this blog post to try to desperately change your beliefs. But I think it is important that you understand my choice.

 Miss you all.

"Flatulence is the expulsion through the rectum of a mixture of gases that are byproducts of the digestion process of mammals and other animals." [1]

Three days ago I entered my first battle with Peruvian bacteria. It was a well planned surprise attack, and I didn't expect it.

You never expect the surprise attack.

The first day I got here I started drinking the water because I decided if I was going to be in Peru for five months, I should just get my body used to the bacteria in the water. I was pretty happy when I didn't get sick at all and this somehow led me to believe I have the best immune system ever. Over a month in, and suddenly BOOM! It's like I'm in an Olympic boxing match with a tiny microorganism, and for a day or so, I was getting slaughtered every round.

I think the most valuable part of this experience has been the fact that I never realized how much I overvalue my independence. The family I live with cares a lot that I haven't been feeling well, but for some reason I don't want their help. I feel like I don't need anyone. I think to myself, "I'm an adult, I can do this on my own." It's taken me three days to come to the correct conclusion. Whether I think their advise on what will make me feel better is right or wrong, the point is that they care about me. It's building unneeded tension in relationships that matter and I just need to man up, give in, and do things that seem to have no point for the sake of the people I care about.

Anyways, I think what I'm really trying to say is this:

Sorry that I'm being an idiot.


Works Cited
[1] Wikipedia, duh

One Month In

I got back from missions a few days ago. I didn’t really know what to expect or what I was going to do before I left. When we first got there, I encountered our toilet.

Figure 1: Looks like I'm not going to poop for five days.

Needless to say, I was extremely happy when we were told that there were toilets on the property that were more relevant to the times. About fifty students came on the trip. Some groups worked with older people who had mental illnesses, others in schools. My group worked with children in impoverished neighborhoods. Most of the children had parents who didn’t have time to take care of them during the day. We colored pictures and played games which I had fun with.

Figure 2: Maybe I went a little overboard when we colored.

Figure 3: Nah!

Over 80% of the population is Catholic and the other volunteers provided catechesis for the children so they could have a greater understanding of the faith. Unfortunately, I still don’t understand enough Spanish to know what went on, which I found somewhat frustrating. The good news is, I’m becoming better at both understanding and speaking Spanish.

I think if you asked most people, they would have said their favorite part of the trip was helping those in need. Although I believe it is important to help others, I feel like 5 days wasn't enough time to make the impact that these children require. They need a role model, someone to look up to, who will always be there for them. I wish I understood how to help them best, but right now, all I could do is to be there for them for the short amount of time I was around.

Figure 4: I have no idea what we are doing.

I don't really feel like writing right now so I'm just going to end this blog post with a bunch of pictures from the trip. It will probably be way more interesting than me writing a few more boring paragraphs.

Hope you enjoyed!

My Favorite Kid

Some Of The Volunteers

Teaching Peru about S'mores

 The Children We Worked With

The Town Of Chincha

We randomly ran into the Mayor

Cat is on the menu!

Honey bees