Elvita meets Yerbas

November 06, 2010:

Yerbas and Elvita. This Saturday instead of our usual church service we had a special program set up. My church, Yerbas Buenas, had invited the church members of Santa Elvita to join us for the whole day. As we pulled in it was so awesome to see all of our benches filled with members. I even noticed some new faces J We first started with some hymns and shaking of hands. We then split into our groups and started Sabbath school. Jenessa, Hanna, Rachel, and Rebecca led out the children’s class. I led out the youth’s class and Doc led out the adults class. This week we studied about David and Bathsheba and we discussed the difference between Urias and King David.

Once we were finished with Sabbath school we went straight to the church service. We sang some hymns, picked up offering, had special music, and so on. At the time of special music there were three groups that sang. First us SM’s sang “How deep the Father’s Love for Us,” the children of Elvita sang a hymn with two part harmony, and we had a duet from Yerbas. We then listened to Hermana Welfa as she gave the sermon.

Once church was done we all got together and had my first Peruvian potluck. Our house prepared pasta and tea. Others family brought food like rice, beans, chicken, and juanes. We all sat outside and enjoyed sharing our food. Once we were all done eating we went back inside the church and watched Gifted Hands in Spanish. After the movie we started JA (Adventist Youth). However, it wasn’t only the youth, the whole church participated. We sang, played, games, and listened to a small message from the Doc.

It was a very wonderful Sabbath, but I must admit it was a bit tiring.

When we got home I had the Doc take a look at some of my cuts and manchas (spots). I was told that I have a type of fungal infection on my face that’s causing the manchas and staph which is why I have infected wounds. So after relieving some puss from one of my cuts he told me to take antibiotics and ibuprofen. I can now truly relate with the people that I help in the medical campaigns. Ha ha And no worries, I´m doing very well and I´m in good hands.

Later that evening, Rebecca, Jonathan, and I accompanied Jenessa to a Quincenera she was invited to. I had my expectations of what it could be. I don’t know why I even bothered ha ha I had told myself to leave all my expectations behind a few weeks ago. When we arrived to the home of Angelica her mother sits us down and serves us all “chicken” soup. I wasn’t hungry at all, but I didn’t want to be rude so I started to eat. Before I knew it I had scooped out a chicken heart, the aorta and everything. Ha ha As the people around me where starring at us eat I couldn’t just toss it to the dog. So… I did it. I cut the heart in half and ate it. Yuck. Not the best thing in the world. Oh well ha ha. As we continued to eat, I noticed that some of the meat looked different. It didn’t quite look like chicken. Before I put it in my mouth Rebecca tells me, “Steph, I have guinea pig in my soup.” And then I’m like, “What?!” ha ha I looked at her bowl and she had an entire guinea pig head in her soup. She showed me the brains and everything. I couldn’t help myself from gasping and laughing. I tried really hard not to look disgusted. I didn’t want to offend the family. And before I could say anything else, I saw Rebecca eat the brains and anything else she could. Groose! Ha ha I couldn’t believe it.

Other things we found in our soups:

Chicken feet (Johnathan’s bowl), chicken kidneys (Rebecca’s bowl), and the butt of the guinea pig (Jenessa’s bowl).

It was an eating adventure for sure. Rebecca the food explorer ate it all ha ha. I ate the vegetables, rice, and chicken heart. That was all I could do. We then moved outside to where all the other people where at. We sat and listened to the evangelical band set up their audio. An hour passed and nothing had happened. Then it started to rain so we all moved inside the house and sat. Two hours had passed and nothing yet. We were so tired and we wanted to go home REALLY bad. But we hadn’t seen Angelica and we didn’t want to be rude by leaving. Finally, after sitting for four hours, the ceremony began. It was the longest ceremony I had ever been to. There was a lot of repetition, SUPER loud music, and much more. Then when it came time where everyone could go up front and congratulate her, we went and told her happy birthday and then headed out the door. I was super bummed that we had been there for five hours and I never got to try the cake. Ha ha As we were about to get in the truck the mom comes out and says, “Wait, wait, I have food for you.” So we went inside and waited a little longer. I didn’t mind waiting for some cake. Then she came out of the kitchen and handed us all plates of food; rice and more chicken. She told us that this was the food that everyone was going to eat after the games. Games? How much longer was this party going to last. We thanked her for the food and her hospitality and then left. There was no way we could stay any longer. We were beyond exhausted.

Upset that I didn’t get any cake, all I could do was laugh and get in the truck. I was relieved just to be going back home.

Boy what a long day.