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. 

Settling In

In order to know what it means to become American, you must know what it means to have been something other than American.

- Meri Nana-Ama Danquah
Becoming American

I found this book at a used book store pretty soon after arriving here in the US. It is a collection of personal essays of first generation American women. And is really interesting to read. To read what they went through/experienced their whole lives. To compare it to what I felt living in Peru and moving back. It's helpful in processing Julton and mine's own feelings about being in the US. 

We've been here a little over two weeks and very busy for all of it. Julton jumped right into his studies and I into looking for employment. Of course, we've had a lot of fun in our spare time, too :)

Julton is a natural at shooting a target with a gun!

in between

Waiting in an airport for 10 hours for your next flight is not so much fun. Especially when there's only one option for food, and their mayonnaise has no lime, and their ketchup sucks, too. That's when you know you are caught in the middle. Oh, Ecuador. 


At least there is free wifi here, they've got that going for them. And some fun earrings that I found that are made out of the seed from a palm tree. They look like the bone or elephant tusk jewelry except vegan friendly. Very cool. 


We are nearing the end of our long stay here in the airport and about to head out to Miami! Immigrations here we come, we've got a visa and we've got a sealed envelope just for you.


Since I've had plenty of time I was able to upload the pictures we have been taking the past few weeks. Meeting up with friends, visiting some new places and saying goodbyes...

There used to be enough beach there where the waves have covered, to play and lie on. They are working on it now, or are in plans to, to restore it. 

Christmas puppet show.

Christmas fireworks after Christmas dinner complete with hot chocolate at midnight on a summer night, at a friend's house. (Thank you, Rosa!)

Zanax meeting one of her new roommates. 

It rained A LOT in moyobamba. Everyday. 

But we still went fishing... and after Julton tried and tried to "help" me because he was convinced that I wouldn't know what I was doing... I caught the biggest one! 800 grams.

Our fearless guide.

Julton's little cousins pretending to be natives, playing in the yard and eating aguaje, a jungle fruit.

Father and son waiting for our luggage at the airport. Julton's dad traveled to Lima with us.

We got to meet up with and go out with our good friends from Trujillo that now live in Lima. I met Katy on my first day here, when I couldn't speak a bit of Spanish. And we have been best friends since. I wouldn't have been able to buy anything, walk anywhere or speak to anyone had it not been for her.

new year!

Happy New Year!


We brought in 2012 peacefully at home while the street outside not so peacefully celebrated the new year. The street in front of Julton´s family´s house has been built up with bars and clubs over the past few years. So even though we didn´t actually go out, we still felt like we were in the party. 


But we actually spent the night at home baking a turkey! I`m not exactly sure why but Julton´s mom was convinced that I´m an expert on turkey cooking. I´m not sure where that came from. But thankfully it all worked out! And it was my first to bake. I also made sweet potato casserole. It was Julton´s family´s first time to try, and they liked it!


It has rained every day if not two times a day here, so it is making it a little difficult to make plans. We have been trying to get out to hike up one of the popular mountains that you can see from nearly everywhere in the city, but it has been raining too much so far. i have no idea how people get their laundry done here, everytime we turn around Julton´s mom or grandmother are bringing the laundry back in because it is raining. 


But, even in the rain we went fishing yesterday. We were determined to go fishing, even though it started raining. We calmly waited for the rain to pass, which is did. But 5 minutes later we looked up and saw another wave of rain coming in our direction, literally. So we waited it out and  looked for the owner of the fish farm. which was a scavenger hunt in itself. Then we were handed our tree branches with a hook attached and a piece of styrofoam as a bobber, and set out to fish. Julton was really worried that I didn´t know what I was doing and was trying to do everything for me every few seconds. Apparently my fishing history has never come up as a topic of conversation in our relationship. He didn´t believe that I knew what I was doing, that is, until I caught the biggest fish of the day! About 2 pounds! Pictures to come soon.