As most of you know by now, some of us got super sick Thursday night. I threw up six or so times throughout the night and felt absolutely miserable Friday morning. Unfortunately, we were traveling all day (as in two bus rides and two flights.) Praise the Lord our nausea went away before we flew and eventually my feverish feeling dissipated with some fantastic meds. Not much of an appetite now but feeling so much better. Kayla and I are very grateful for the prayers and have learned that being sick in such close quarters = great bonding. Poor Kelly though! 

Side note: we had an Earthquake drill in the airport and my instinct was to stop, drop, and roll… Georgia has not prepared me.

We are finally in Trujillo with our Peruvian family! The university greeted us when we got here with smiles and gifts (school bags with our books and buttons, ect.) And to our surprise, we were filmed for a reality show about the university! Even though I looked my absolute worst after begin sick, it was so fun!

Group by group, we were dropped off at our host homes. It was so fun to see everyone meet their family! It seems as though they were just as excited and nervous as we were. We were last to get dropped off. Kayla, Henssey, and I are all living together. The dad and THREE KIDS greeted us at the door. :) To make it even more perfect, they have a bull mastiff pup! The mom is so sweet and smiles all the time. The dad is a former chef (yay!) and the kids are 5, 9, and 11 (2 girls and a little boy). The dogs name means “peach” in Japanese which I thought was perfect since we are from Georgia!

This morning we had breakfast a family and headed to the market. Market=Peruvian walmart. We also gave the family our thank-you-gift which was a UGA football, two coca-cola glasses, and red, white, and blue crazy straws which were perfect for the kids. They used them right away! After all, kids are kids everywhere. :)

In other words, we LOVE LOVE LOVE our family! We start shadowing and classes on Monday morning. The hospital will be from 8am-12pm and classes will be from 3pm-6/7pm. Lots of work and learning ahead but so excited! Tonight we are having our welcoming dinner.

And lastly, Kayla and I found this quote in the book Circle Maker at the perfect time and wanted to share:

“The day we stop dreaming is the day we start dying. When imagination is sacrificed on the altar of logic, God is robbed of the glory that rightfully belongs to Him. In fact, the death of a dream is often a subtle form of idolatry. We lose faith in the God who gave us this big dream and settle for the small dream that we can accomplish without His help. We go after dreams that don’t require divine intervention. We go after dreams that don’t require prayer. And the God who is able to do immeasurably more than all our right brain can imagine is supplanted by a god- lowercase g- who fits within the logical constraints of our left brain. Nothing honors God more than a big dream that is way beyond our ability to accomplish.”

On that note, hasta leugo!

H

Where to begin?

Late Monday night, we packed “enough” into our book bags for two and a half days. Luckily we were able to leave the majority of our things at the hotel in Cusco. Tuesday morning we hopped on the bus at 8am. From there we headed to the Ccorao Market and a petting zoo! We got to play with llamas and alpacas and feed them. So fun! Then we headed to the Valle Sagrado and Pisaq for some hiking and AMAZING views! But sometimes you just accidently wear sandals because you didn’t understand your leader who spoke 5,036mph… but at least I was in good company with Kelly and Kayla.

Finally we arrived in Ollataytambo to ride the Incan Rail to MACHU PICCHU! It was a two hour train ride and was a blast. We played games the whole time. We stayed in Aguas Calientes for the night and shopped around. This town 100% reminded me of an amusement park.  Picture Jurassic Park?

Wednesday morning started at 4am for us! How? 3 alarms and a rooster who was clearly confused. We had breakfast (kinda) in the hotel and sprinted to the bus at 5:30am. From there, we began our ascent to Machu Picchu.  I had to make Kayla sit by the window because I still hate (more than anything) bus rides on mountains, and wow this was a mountain. We got to Machu Picchu at 6:30am and began the hike! We spent hours and hours going through the ruins and being absolutely amazed at what we were seeing. It truly looked like a painting. Then we kicked it into gear and went up, up, up for about 2 hours until we reached the most amazing view that my eyes had ever seen. It was quite the climb but the smile never left my face. I don’t know how, but it was better than I imagined.

Then with shaky legs and hungry bellies we began our descent. We headed back down the mountain to the town. We then had lunch at the hotel and collapsed into our bed for siesta. After siesta we headed out on a quest for helado (ice cream). Mission accomplished. After hanging out around the city more, it eventually approached dinner time with which we all (except the boys…) had tears of joy when they put a salad in front of us (more yummy stuff to follow our dose of fiber). Then… groupo fiesta with some “what are the odds?” game time. For those of you who don’t know… your odds are pretty good in this game but some pretty funny and crazy stuff can happen. I had to wear a napkin on my head as a bonnet for the rest of our time there and Kayla was supposed to have toilet paper hanging out of her pants all day today until a complete stranger approached her. All of this led to tears of laughter and a serious ab workout.

Today we headed back to Cusco with some long train and bus rides. We had lunch and then a free afternoon. Kayla, Kelly, Heather, Claire, and I all headed to the plaza to do some reading and people watching. We managed to fit 5 people on a 4 person bench. Snug indeed which was great because the weather here is more confusing than Georgia, which none of us thought was possible!

Best part of the day: An 8 year old Peruvian girl se llama Mariluz talked to us for an hour! She grabbed Kayla’s pen and drew all of us pictures. So sweet. We all bought a llama key chain from her. During the hour of her hanging out with us, we also bought homemade bread and looked  at some beautiful paintings from an art student. Safe to say none of us read more than a paragraph.

Heading to a pizzeria tonight!

Buenas Noches!

H

Machu Picchu 

The famous Machu Picchu face!

Victory apple for you J :)

5 Chicas on a bench :)

Mariluz y Kayla

Altitude Sickness. It’s real.

And it’s easily explained by what Kayla now calls “Hannah’s Episode…”

My alarm was set Saturday night for 7am Sunday morning and for some reason I woke up at 1:15am and begin to panic that we were late so I woke up Kayla. She quickly brought me back to reality and I embarrassingly said “oh, okay,” and went to the bathroom. Note to self: body freaks out when you go from laying down sleeping to full-blown-standing-up-panic. So what happened? Well, in the bathroom, I suddenly got very hot and nauseous. Next thing I knew, I woke up on the floor after passing out, only finding a lovely bruise/bump on my forehead as evidence to what had happened. Luckily, Kayla (queen of Google searches), helped me to conclude it was only mild altitude sickness and she allowed me to go back to bed (after I assured her my brain was, in fact, not swelling) Phew! Don’t fret, 100% back to normal in the morning! Hence… “Hannah’s Episode.”

Beyond that, still having a BLAST! We woke up at 7am yesterday and went to breakfast. Then went on a 4 hour walking tour of Cusco! So beautiful. Our tour guide took us all around to different parts of the city as well as inside an amazingly beautiful temple. We learned the difference between a llama and an alpaca and how symbolic the Incans were with their rocks. However, we’ve come up with some interpretations of our own! We explored all day and had some wonderful bonding time as a group. I also found a Starbucks which made me one happy chica! Only downside of the day: they put alpaca on my plate at dinner. As adventurous as I am trying to be with trying new foods, the alpaca will have to wait a little longer.

Today, however, has been my favorite day yet! We went to a place called Saqsaywaman (everyone calls it sexywoman) which is the former capital of the Incan Empire. Wow. So breathtaking. (Literally since there is about 0% oxygen in the air and you climb about 1,000 stairs up a mountain). Kelly pointed out that the view was “so saqsay.” My favorite part was the built in slides going down part of the mountain. The Incans were my kind of people!

Tonight we are heading out to watch some Peruvian dancers before dinner. As for now? We are embracing the culture and grabbing some siesta time. Tomorrow, we pack our backpacks and leave first thing in the morning for 2 and a half days to visit Aguas Calientes, the Sacred Valley, and MACHU PICCHU!!!!

Beyond excited.

Summary: I am having an absolute blast, the culture is incredible and so are the Peruvian people, and most importantly, God is great and has been great for all of time! As amazing as the Incan Empire is, nothing compares to His artwork and creation of these mountains and the pieces of Himself that he put into His people all over the world! We can only stand in awe.

Buenas Tardes!

H

La Plaza de Armas 

La Catedral

I spy with my little eye... :)

The best slide in the whole world!

What do you think J? ;)

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The adventures begin!

Words cannot express the events, interactions, and feelings that have occurred all before we have had our first full night of sleep. We left Friday evening from ATL and flew through the night till we arrived in Cusco, Peru at 8am Saturday morning. Thankfully I am queen of naps and collected hours of sleep along the way.

Cusco: 40◦F in the morning, very touristy, and SO SCENIC. Our whole group screams American with our iPhones in the air in every direction. The food is absolutely incredible! Everything is so fresh and delicious. Pobre America. A warm welcome from the restaurant as “Georgia on my mind” came on during lunch!

We got to rest for a while before heading out to explore the city! I was honestly in awe the whole time. Everywhere you turn, there are mountain ranges and historic buildings. Today has just been taking everything in and learning as much as we can for day one. The next few days are tourist adventures before we head to Trujillo to shadow and take classes. I am so excited!

Interesting tid bits:
1.     I got voted most likely girl to blend in here
2.     They have mate de coca tea for altitude sickness which is illegal in US but keeping us all alive
3.     The toilet flushes in the opposite directions as the states because we are below the equator
4.     And lastly… those cute teenage girls holding baby lambs and alpacas who take a picture with you are more than ready to scam you and its ends in “firm hannah” getting the policia involved! My trust for all people may need to be well on guard but over all we feel very safe here!

All in all, I LOVE IT! I love my group and I love this amazing opportunity. As much as I am enjoying being a tourist first, I am so incredibly excited to begin shadowing!

Buenas Noches!

H