Three Weeks In

So I'm a bit late getting started with the whole blogging thing, but for those who are interested, here is what has happened thus far:

The trip down was fantastic. We met some great people on the plane and had an interesting bus ride in to Trujillo. I didn't expect the country side to be so desert-ish, but trust me when I say that there is nothing but sand here. In fact, I am trying to convince someone to take me sandboarding while I am here. But anyways, after about nine hours, my father and I arrived safe and sound in Trujillo. And that's when the fun began. As soon as we made it to the Rios house, we began eating, and eating, and eating, and eating. For example, The first full day I was here, We ate breakfast around 8 a.m., then ate pre-lunch at a restaurant around noon, then drove home and ate lunch around 1 p.m., then ate dinner around 7 p.m. They say their isn't much to do in Trujillo so everyone eats as a pastime, but thankfully, for the sake of my weight, the eating has slowed down. The Rios Family is amazing and they were very excited to show Dad and I around. We visited a museum, toured their farm, ate at various restaurants, and drove around the whole city just to see the sights.

But the time came for my Dad to make the trip back, and so begrudgingly he took the nine-hour ride back to Lima, and eventually made it back. My first day of work was great. Mario(the pastor I work with) and I drove up to Esperanza (the poor suburb of Trujillo) and made a video to send back to the U.S. The video was of a family whose house had fallen over. The single mother tried to rebuild a house out of sticks and clothes but it was pretty much just a big mess. Mario sent the video to a pastor in America to see if someone would be willing to raise about $700, which would be enough to build the family a sturdy house. My music classes began the following day, and since then, all I have been doing is working, working, working. My schedule is as follows: Music classes from 9-Noon, then we take the students to the beach for an hour or so, then we drive them all home. I come home for lunch around 2 or 3 and then around 5, I go out to church. Since Mario pastors three different churches in different cities, we have service every night except mondays, thursdays, and saturdays. So as you can see, I keep fairly busy.

More about my music classes: I teach about twenty kids music everyday of the week except sundays. There are two groups that come on alternating days. They are great students who love music and they are learning very fast. Mario leaves me to teach all by myself, so it's kind of a sink or swim situation with the language thing. Since I have been teaching entirely in Spanish for about three weeks, I am getting pretty comfortable with the language, although I have a long way to go.

Well, there is so much more to say about these last three weeks, but since I am so behind on the blogging already I will have to leave it out. Hopefully I can update this thing weekly so you can hear some of the funny stories I accumulate while I'm out and about. Most of them involve me making a fool of myself in public.

Until Next Week,

Luke