Bert Elliot: a faithful star, rising night after night for Christ - Blog - Eternal Perspective Ministries

Bert Elliot: a faithful star, rising night after night for Christ - Blog - Eternal Perspective Ministries

Hearing the news and reading the article above, I feel so surprised. The Elliots were very good to me in the short time that I was able to know them. I attended a Bible study they had in their own house, for a while. Until regrettably teaching a class took over that hour in the week. I saw and experienced first hand their generosity and selflessness. My heart and prayers go out to Mrs. Elliot and their family, as well as the church family in Trujillo. What a sweet man of God he truly was. 

reverse culture what?

I've been neglecting blogging and spending more time (or wasting time? -debateable) on Pinterest. Laughing at this like this:

Source: polyvore.com via Julie on Pinterest

And listening to people like Iron & Wine ... Ingrid Michaelson and The Civil Wars on itunes that I have downloaded from NPR's Tiny Desk Concerts or Daytrotter. Love those.


But mostly right now I am drinking ginger tea and trying to fill up on vitamin C to help me get this cold the outta here. I've had a cold since we got here, and after it turned into an ear infection and I started antibiotics... the antibiotics are gone now and I am a little paranoid about getting sick again. Julton tells me that I am a dramatic vomiter and nose blower (that might be TMI ... sorry) so me blowing my nose during nap time at the daycare is not going so well, I wake the kids up! 


And since I have been doing things like this... I haven't even loaded or finished for that matter, the post that I started quite a while back... so here it is:






So far being back home, Julton and I have been invited to and participated in a lot of thing that I didn't even do the whole 18 years of my life that I lived here. It has been fun to experience them with Julton and see his reaction to everything. 

Monster Jam, for example.

Last night (several nights ago) we went to see a country music concert. 



Dia Frampton, the opening act, is not country. (which relieved me, country music and I are not the best of friends... but country music and Julton are getting along better than I had dreamed or hoped) She has a beautiful voice and fun songs. I loved their performance and am sad that we couldn't drive to Pittsburgh tonight to see her play again. Her record is out, in case anyone would like to surprise me with a gift :D


- the second act by the way was SUPER country and I caught him listening to it on youtube the next day.


To close... just a few or not so few random thoughts of things that I have noticed since coming back to the USA. A friend of mine asked me a few days ago what was the hardest thing to get used to in Peru... and to be honest it was hard to answer because I could only think of things I am having a hard time adjusting to now! I finally came up with not having things like mixes and sauces readily available to buy or that canned foods were more expensive... but after a few years I got used to figuring out how to make my food without all of that boxed and canned stuff and realized how much healthier I was for it... which means that since being back in the states and experiencing fresh food being more expensive... let's suffice it to say that my body and I are not happy. Thus more ginger tea for me. 


1. We are currently living where I grew up, which is miles from anything and in the middle of the woods. It's fun for Julton because he feels like he is in Moyobamba again ... except for the fact that it is so cold right now. Ironically Julton hasn't felt bad at all, I've been the one with the cold. But the cold and this cold that I have have both made it hard for me to get out to run. Thankfully Julton agreed to go out with me yesterday when the weather was prettier. Apparently the neighborhood isn't as safe as it used to be and I'm not supposed to go out running alone. Coming from our neighborhood in Trujillo, I did not see that one coming. 


2. Everyone is on a diet!! At least most people that I have met. And to be honest, diets annoy me. Or at least confuse me. Or maybe it is just the word. I think that if you are going to change the way that you eat, that is great... but make it permanent. More a lifestyle change than a temporary fix. 


3. I miss walking everywhere. And I don't like buying gas. And by the way I think that Julton is still a little shocked that I can drive.


4. In orientation for my job someone asked me if I had any gum, and in church I see candy and lotion passed around. And it just made me think that the only thing I was ever asked for in Peru when I was out in a crowd or in church... was for toilet paper. :) (You usually have to carry your own for the bathrooms there.) Not a bad difference, just a difference that I noticed. 


5. I do not express myself well face to face in English. I start to ramble because what I am saying doesn't make much sense. It makes sense in my head but not when it comes out. Thankfully the people this has happen to have been very patient with me. But it makes me start to think, if it is like this for me... what must it be like for Julton? Although I guess that I understand his fight with English because it was/is like my fight with Spanish. But me fighting with English? Ugh. Sometimes I feel like people look at me and think, isn't she supposed to be a college graduate?


6. Someone told me before coming back that I would remember things the way they were but they would have changed and that would be difficult for me to adjust to. Okay, That two way street is no longer a two way street. But what they didn't tell me was that I was going to pretend to remember things and get them completely ridiculously wrong. Then do things like go into blockbuster and expect to be able to rent movies as if it were the library. When my reaction to the guy asking me for money was "What? I have to pay??" I'm pretty sure he thought I was either sarcastic or just weird. 


7. And choose your own ingredients style restaurants like Subway or what we most recently tried Qdoba? I wanted to tell them just to pick out the ingredients for me and surprise me. The food was great but I'm not used to having so many options. 


8. I think my face gets a little red when I get called honey, darlin, sweetheart etc. Because I am used to being called names (I'd rather not hear) by guys on the street that usually are a little distance away anyway and you can pretend you didn't hear it. And maybe hearing "hija" (daughter) or "amiguita" (little friend)...but not honey from someone that is giving me the total of my order or refilling the water I told them I was done with anyway. 


9. People really like to buy things. Things they don't really need. I like to "go shopping" but usually don't actually buy anything. I would like to say it is because I don't have any money anyway, but it doesn't seem to stop other people.


10. I miss having friends close by. to be able to call someone and say hey see you in 5 minutes at..".."  In Trujillo I lived just a few blocks away from some of my closest friends. Here the closest one lives 2 hours away... TWO HOURS! After our visit this weekend, when leaving I thought to myself that it was way easier to live another continent away from her rather than so close yet so far away. That's just torture.


*Please note that Im not trying to sound negative if it sounds that way. I'm just noting some things, Julton and I both are having good and bad days with "culture shock". 


I also... really miss my cat. She is having a blast living in the jungle now, but wow I miss her. Even if she was crazy. 

becoming reality

This is definitely one of the coolest things that I have found lately. This lady takes pictures that children have drawn and makes plush toys out of them! What a cool gift that would be! 

Check her out at Child's Own Studio

groundhog day? groundhog day.

Something quite mind blowing has happen. I'm working with kids. And I am enjoying it!


Now if you know me at all, you know that it's not that I don't like kids or have something against them... but at least my first choice on where to spend 8 hours out of my day would not be with a bunch of children. 


But alas, I had the opportunity to work at a daycare/preschool. And here I am , spending eight hours a day being spit up on, rocking babies and changing diapers, holding toddlers hands as they learn to walk, and helping after school kids with their homework. 


And it is all working out really well. If you can imagine me feeding and rocking one baby while bouncing two others with my feet on bouncers... that's how my week has gone. Some of the kids don't notice me, and some of the kids are in love with me. And I love each of them. In just a couple of weeks. I think some monumental bridge has been crossed. Officially. I realized it a few days ago when it wasn't so scary to change a diaper. Then again yesterday when I was helping a little boy learn to eat his cereal. Then it really set in today when I got to help a few kids with their homework and their English. The place I am working is probably one of the only places in our area with a concentration of kids that don't speak English at home. And even though I don't speak their languages either, (I haven't found one yet that speaks Spanish) when I told them about how lots of people called me July instead of Julie in Peru, they looked at me with big eyes that made me think they thought I could understand them. And then they taught me how to really pronounce their names and let me help them understand their homework. 


I've made myself agree to work on not showing them too much special attention though. Even if they make me feel giddy and at home and not lost, I don't think the other kids would understand that. 


Today one of the kids was very skeptical about a groundhog having a day and him deciding if we were going to have Spring or Winter and why everyone was so excited about it and him having to color a picture about it. I tended to agree with him but I tried not to let on.