a little of this and a lot of that

I haven't been around for a while. And by that I mean, I haven't posted it a while, almost a whole month to be exact! Sorry to those of you that check regularly to see if I have posted!! I think that I have just been a little bit carried away with life and without the ability to sit down and say much about whats been going on. But lots has been going on. My work schedule has picked up quite a lot, which I am happy for. I think there is a fine line between teaching too many classes and being frazzled and teaching too few classes and having too much time to prepare (hello super obsessed and extra long lessons). I need balance in my teaching time. And I feel that lately I have been able to have that. I'm teaching a variety of students these days, some group classes, some teenagers, some private classes. I like the variety. Actually, quite irconically I am teaching my old coworkers from when I worked at the kindergarden last year! I was a little nervous to start (read: very nervous), but being a co-worker and being their ESL teacher are two different types of confidence (for me at least). The class is actually turning out to be one of my favorites. We go out once a week for class, we are rotating one week a park and the next a cafe. It's been working out quite well. I've started teaching some teenagers also. .... You would think that having studied psychology that I would be better prepared when I go into a class of a different generation of students than me. Well, lesson learned. I'm learning a lot with them. About myself. And about how I am not ready for children yet in my life, at least teenagers. But I suppose babies aren't born teenagers from the get-go huh. Anyway, they are teaching me a lot about limits. And how my limits as far as "this bothers me but I'm not going to let you know because I'm not controversial like that" and my limits of "how the heck would you discipline in this situation and is it even my place? i really need to learn how to be more firm" ... those limits or ranges... really need to get closer together. 

But I have been able through the few 3 years that I have been here, to have quite a range of experience teaching. That's something that my friend, and boss, pointed out to me today as he told me that he was promoting me to the role of Academic Director for our company... right before we walked into a meeting with new clients today. I was a little taken aback at first. But I'm excited. I'm going to continue teaching but perhaps not as many classes, and also help out and eventually take care of ... academic coordinating. Helping out and organizing the other teachers and clients. Peru (God using me in Peru) has been good to me. I have had the opportunity to work in an institute environment, privately, with SMALL children in a school, and now with professionals - businesses and individuals. And now I am going to start the journey of learning a new role in the same field. I didn't see (any of) this coming!

But enough about me and more about Julton! We... are coming up on our one year anniversary! Wow, how fast the time has passed. It's absolutely flown. And we have both grown and gone through many changes over this year. In recent weeks Julton has been busy with his work in the clinic, especially with the visits of medical teams that have come to do campaigns and doctors that have come individually to spend some of their time with the clinic. He has been able to work beside them and learn from them as he translated for them. Every time there is a visiting doctor (or even since the new doctor, Marcus Ueltschey and his family) has been in the clinic, Julton has such excitement about stories and stories to tell me about what they had done or what he learned. Not that I understand a lot of it... but he tells me anyway! 

Doctors Marcus and Julton

Other than his work with the clinic Julton's been busy with so much else too. The cell group leaders, or rather the group of Pablos as they have been saying (using the relationship of Paul and Timothy to form/plant and continue cell groups for the church Cristo Rey) have been preparing for our cell groups to start back up again. We are excited, we had had such a variety in ours in the past, (college students... young couples with young children.... older parents whose children have already left home...) if we could get everyone that came now and then to come regularly we would have quite a family! Apart from cell group preparation Julton's also been busy with deaconal meetings, choir meetings (he rotates with another to direct the choir every other Sunday), and finally coming sheer steps closer to getting the materials that he/we need for him to be prepared to take the USMLE exams, to do his medical residency in the states. Wow what a task. Very, very thankfully a friend of a friend that is coming to visit from the states was able to help him find some essential videos that weren't quite so expensive, and is coming to Peru for a visit so he's bringing them here! That is a blessing I cannot even begin to explain. How long we have looked for those videos...

Coming up on our anniversary, we are both taking vacation. And I couldn't be more excited! We are going to travel north to a beach town where although my teenage students told me (as if they were going to bring me disappointment) that it's best to go in January (the middle of tourist season) -I know from experience that in late March the water is still warm and the sun is still shinning, ... and the air still smells fresher than in the center of the third largest city in Peru. I'll take it.

Also... check out Ari! Another way I've been spending my time recently has been catching up with friends here, nearly all of whom ironically, have recently had babies. This is my friend Cindy's newest family member. And of course her mother gave me the look over that went with her actual spoken words of "Julie?...and you??...not yet??? why not yet??... I don't understand" Peruvian couples (usually) have babies pretty soon after they've gotten married. So everyone we know here, even if we only know them not so well... are all waiting. Usually I can get by on the "oh, she's a foreigner" card, because they just assume it's different. But I liked the way a friend of mine put it just recently when someone asked my why I didn't have babies yet in their presence "No, they don't... they married because they wanted to be married to each other"  I am completely content getting to know Julton better and growing in our marriage more before we start having children... so sorry none of you will be tios or tias for now!

 And Zanax... she's growing. Man she is growing. She's a little less jumpy near the windows with the bugs and birds, her belly is getting bigger and bigger from the food that she's finally decided that she likes (her cat food... it took a while to find a brand that she liked.. who knew they could be that picky?) she's playing just a little less in the litter pan, and being just a bit less wild and more likely to snuggle. Although she will still catch you off guard with a bite or a scratch or a jump 5 feet in the air (because that's how tall I am) to try to catch a ponytail. Okay, maybe that's an exaggeration, but she really does jump the scale of the chair to try to grab hair if it's moving. 

And yes those are still paper snowflakes on our window. They make the window look a little happier, especially at night. Don't judge me.

"If I should have a daughter"

"I'm gonna paint the solar systems on the backs of her hands. So she has to learn the entire universe before she can say "Oh, I know that like the back of my hand"


And she's gonna learn that this life will hit you hard
in the face
waiting for you to get back up just so it can kick you in the stomach. But getting the wind knocked out of you is the only way to remind your lungs how much they life the taste of air.


A friend of mine posted this on facebook, and I loved it so much I had to share it here. I love this site TED. 


A little about Sarah Kay (from the TED website)
Plenty of 14-year-old girls write poetry. But few hide under the bar of the famous Bowery Poetry Club in Manhattan’s East Village absorbing the talents of New York’s most exciting poets. Sarah Kay also had the guts to take its stage and hold her own against performers at least a decade her senior. Her talent for weaving words into poignant, funny, and powerful performances paid off. 


Now 22, Kay is a successful spoke word poet and codirects Project V.O.I.C.E. (Vocal Outreach Into Creative Expression). Founded by Kay in 2004, Project V.O.I.C.E. encourages people, particularly teenagers, to use spoken word as a tool for understanding the world and self, and a medium for vital expression.

"A day with Sarah Kay reminded me of poetry's power to help us make sense of our lives, to see the world in a new way."

Deb Martin, Rowan University

a home.

I know that I haven't posted in a while and although this isn't a "real" post, I had to share about this hosue that I found...

I had to share about this house. This couple in Whales built it themselves for their small family of four! 

From the article, about the house:

Sustainable design and construction:

1. Dug into hillside for low visual impact and shelter
2. Stone and mud from diggings used for retaining walls, foundations etc.
3. Frame constructed of fallen trees from surrounding woodland
4. Reciprocal roof rafters are structurally very easy to do
5. Straw bales in floor, walls and roof for super-insulation and easy building
6. Plastic sheet and mud/turf roof for low impact and ease
7. Lime plaster on walls is breathable and low energy to manufacture compared to cement
8. Reclaimed (scrap) wood for floors and fittings
9. Other items were reclaimed from “a rubbish pile somewhere”: windows, wiring, plumbing

I find this place very beautiful.... I wonder if I could ever get Julton to live in a place like this for a while... or if a place exists that we could rent even if only for vacation...hmmm

tacacho and cecina and chorizo oh my!

Jungle Food.... Jungle Family... 
Jungle Food night with Jungle Family.
This week our friend Kenedy's mom came to town, that always means good food. And, Julton's sister Pilar came to visit for the first time since she moved back home. Actually, she came to fix some stuff with the university. They are having problems finalizing everything even though they are finished, and finished at the top of their class at that. I am really excited that she is visiting. I got a little giddy when she got here, and we chatted for way too long over coffee and muffins for breakfast after she arrived at our house from her bus ride. We didn't realize how much time had passed until her mom called to see how the process in the university was going. "i'm... finishing my breakfast" she responded :D I have missed them since they moved to Moyobamba - 15 hours away. Since we moved to where we are now, and lived in the same building as them for a while before they moved, and when the grandparents came and everyone had dinner together every night... I got pretty used to seeing them all the time. Watching Julton pick on them and watching them gang up on him. Sharing food and experiencing new foods from the US for them and the jungle for me. Their favorites that I had made them were chicken fettucine alfredo and strawberry cheesecake. We were working on them learning those dishes before they left. And they taught me how to fry all the different kinds of bananas so that Julton wouldn't starve when they left. hehe

I love those girls, and I wish they would just move back to Trujillo already. But, I'm happy for them, they are both working. And ironically one of their university friends found work in the same town, so they don't get too Trujillo-sick. 

We made some jungle food (we = kenedy mostly, pilar as his sioux chef, julton reading medical articles on the sidelines and yvette (a new friend and new missionary for Peru Mission) and i chopping this or washing that)

Pilar's phone rang off the hook...

Julton, no matter the pain, will eat Jungle food when it is offered. 

We used a wine bottle to mash up the bananas to make tacacho, usually they use a rock... which we have in our house... somewhere....

Yvette was excited about the little ajies (peppers) from the jungle. I'm not a fan of spicy food, but these little guys have a distinct flavor that cannot be resisted. It's one of my favorite parts of the packages that come from Moyobamba.

Cecina (dried meat, this was ham) with chorizo (sausage) and tacacho (plantains fried and mashed with the fat from the meat) i never imagined myself falling in such love with something that was intentionally cooked with added animal fat. 

Kenedy, showing off the final dish. The food was absolutely delicious. Absolutely.

you almost speak like a native... english speaker.

that's the joke my student's came up with for me today. that and "your grammar is so good you must be an advanced student, almost fluent in english!" why? because that's kind of how I felt yesterday.. after meeting someone, from England actually, that even though I carried on a conversation with him in English, thought I was Peruvian. I was a little caught off guard! And one of the funny parts was, him not realizing that I was from the states, began to describe to me the different accents in the states as an example of why some native teachers in an institute here don't teach well. I didn't quite know what to say, I just let him explain to me how I apparently, speak. 


I was in a English conversation/debate meeting along with my students and a few others I hadn't met before. The leader of the debate was Australian, so it was quite interesting for me to be in the same room with an Austrailian and an Englishman, I haven't met many of either. The topic was terrorism: political or religious? And naturally they brought up the war and the fall of the twin towers. Which is when the leader of the debate asked me my opinion as their American guest. Before he pointed out my nationality, the other had been truly bashing the US, just talking (giving his part of the debate) really aggressively. I didn't speak up, I just listened while thinking "wow... this guy is so passionate about this... are all English like this or does he have some kind of personal beef about it??" Well, I think that was his way of debating... or discussing... or conversing in general? Because after the debate had finished he continued talking with me... where in the states are you from? I answered with my usual "from WV but I went to SC for college, so it's like my second home" which he came back, and immediately i might add, with "so what is your opinion of the bible belt? do you think it's a dangerous threat?"




...




I admit, I was a little speechless. I didn't quite know what to say because I didn't really know what he meant by that. But I could tell that he was very serious and aggresive about it. And eventually he meant for example the Christians that want to burn the koran, or the ones that blow up abortion clinics. But once I figured that out I was still a little confused because we had just discussed in the debate how in religious groups there can be radicals or extremists that don't exactly stand for the whole group, but get all the media making it look that way. My response to him was something of the same, but he insisted. So I had to respond with well, all I know to tell you is that I am a Christian and I am from the "bible belt" but... I'm not going to go blow up a clinic or do a lot of what you are generalizing me into. He seemed somewhat satisfied with that. But I just couldn't shake that, it made me want to ask him what had happen to him to make him react so strongly. For that and other comments that he had made about "American Evangelists bringing their Bibles to Peru"  


And it made me turn my look inward also. I am such a quiet passive person. Sometimes too much so. And also, it made me see how much of a bubble I live in. I have always lived in one. A Christian University and then working for a Mission, all of the friends have the same beliefs as me... with a few exceptions... but those exceptions aren't quite so confrontational as last nights experience. I am completely not prepared to talk to someone that confronts me so aggressively, but that could be said about my faith or my life in general... I just don't react well to aggressiveness. What do you do in that situation? Try to break things down and see what the real problem is? Or where the real hate is coming from? Yesterday I tried to help him see that he was generalizing a few cases to make his point. But what would be a good reaction to have, when someone is bouncing their anger or frustration out on you whom may or may not have something in common with the actual people they are so frustrated with?

a cultural difference, a sick husband, and a nervous wife.

i am quite confident that before ever coming to Peru, or for that matter before this year, I would never have imagined "expert rear end injection giver" being added to my list of skills on my resume. but i am starting to think i should probably add that now. especially after this past weekend. 


first to answer the question "Julie... you never studied to be a nurse, never came close, even dropped the dream of occupational therapy upon the first anatomy course.... what in the world are you doing giving injections??"


well, alongside buying lots of medication in pharmacies without prescriptions that we wouldn't be able to buy over the counter in the states... you can also tell them that you want "blah" ml of "such" medicine and buy a needle too. i first figured that out when i had a spree of migraines that nothing would relieve, until Julton came over with a needle. i didn't think too much about it  (since he himself is a doctor) until one day when Julton explained to me how to give one to our friend Gillian (when he wasn't around). Little did I know that would be my first but not last go at giving injections. 


Since we have been married I have given Julton a total of 5 injections. Why have I counted you may ask? Because they are that well etched into my memory that I can recall each and every one of them. The first one when I nearly cried along with him (he... has an irrational fear of needles? at least some kind of fear) when I thought I was giving it wrong and imagined him never walking again. I think I have blogged about that before. The other four... have all happen over the course of the past week. And each time I was nervous, he was nervous... thus I was even more so. I had to do breathing exercises not only for him but for my benefit too. It takes a special person to be a nurse, and I now appreciate each and every one of you more... because I am scared to death of putting a needle in someone. But maybe I would feel a little better about it if i had had some training and not my "patient" telling me what to do nervously. 


Over the past year Julton has been in a lot of pain for his teeth, specifically one tooth. He has been treated for it numerous times, and the pain just keeps coming back. So... this past weekend when it started bothering him again... he made the decision to have it taken out. It was a molar, farthest back. I reacted a little strong the first time he told me he wanted to have it removed asking and asking to be sure there wasn't another option. But he was convinced it needed to be done, he was tired of dealing with it over and over again. So Sunday morning he missed what I think was the first church service I have seen him miss since I have known him (not including when he was in his internship and had no choice) and we went out to get it taken out. Then I had to give him more injections. And today another... to help his stomach deal with all the medicine he's been taking. 


When you pray, please add him to your requests. I'm not so sure he is out of the clear (he had to come home early from work today... that alongside the missing church is something that never happens) please pray that this problem would pass! 

zanax.... yes, again.

I realize that I post a lot about this little kitten.... that is not so little anymore, but... she's just so cute to photograph!

And she just really likes her picture to be taken! I was playing with her with the broom, which happens to be one of her best friends. Well, actually  I can't tell if it's her best friend or if she fights with it because she likes to sleep in the dustpan all the time. I'm not sure which. But as I was trying to get her playing (she gets pretty intense) she just plopped down in front of me and the camera as though "okay I'm ready for my shoot".