Back On Our Feet

Well, some digestive sickness knocked us off our feet for the past few weeks. It's easy to forget how wonderful eating is. We could only drink fluids and fantasize about what we would eat if we were able to. (Don't ever stop drinking fluids if you have that sort of sickness. Ahem, anyway..)

However, we're happy to report that we're finally back on our feet! And good gravy-- is it wonderful to be able to eat or what?

With the illness hitting us so hard, we're only just getting started with the bigger stuff. We've already been out today making plans for literacy, and we'll be making a trip out into the countryside next weekend to talk to some pastors from another area about their literacy needs. We'll let you know how that turns out very soon. But for now, we would like to share a few of the simpler things that struck us about living here.

-There are a ridiculous number of stray dogs here. They're everywhere, on every street. You're just as likely to see stray dogs as you are people. In fact, once when I (Brad) was walking home by myself to Amy (who was already feeling sick), one of the stray dogs charged me, barking like crazy. It wasn't a big deal though, I simply pretended to pick up rocks and throw them at it, and it quickly ran away.

-Liquids often come in bags. Milk, ketchup, mayonnaise, mustard, and yogurt are all good examples. Seeing ketchup in a bag kinda reminds me (Brad) of a giant ketchup packet.

Here's some chocolate milk in a bag. Brad can't get enough of this stuff!

Here's how we pour the milk: snip a corner and use a pitcher.

-It's rude to slam your door if you get into someone's car.. but the doors feel really light here for some reason. I'm still working on this one (Brad).

-The water from the sink is not good to drink, so we fill this tub with filtered water and use that for drinking, cooking, and brushing our teeth.

-Watching the streets for a while will challenge your idea of how many people and how much stuff you can get into/onto a single vehicle. I wasn't aware that a motorcycle could transport a family of 5.

-Because of the altitude, the Sun is super strong here and it tends to burn us, so we wear good sunscreen every day. Not a bad habit to be in, really.

-The steakhouses in the United States could learn something from the steakhouses here. Why hide all your food in a secluded kitchen? Here, they cook everything on an open flame out in the open so that everyone sees the juicy steaks, and entire streets smell like steak on the grill around suppertime. Entire streets..

-Bread here is not like sandwich bread at home. We buy fresh loaves like the ones below every few days for sandwiches and snacking. It's so fresh and tasty!

The bread on the left is our sandwich bread. The small ones on the right are a local type called cuñape (koon-YAWP-ay) that are made of cheese and yucca flour...yum!

Amy enjoying a cuñape, her favorite.

-The outlets are a bit different here, but for the most part, all our stuff works. Note there is no ground (three prong) option, so we had to borrow an adapter for our computer (Thanks Wassers!).

The far left is a light switch.

-We have discovered a new favorite food. They are called humintas (oo-MEEN-tas) and are made fresh every afternoon at our corner market. They are made with cornmeal, corn, egg, cheese, and oil that is steamed in a corn husk for an hour. They taste like a moist cornbread.

A new favorite for Brad! Note the chocolate milk. :)

All gone! Yum!

I (Amy) will have to learn to cook these so I can make them when I get home.

These are just a few of the things we have learned/observed while being here. I'm sure there will be many things about home that we will see in a new light when we return to the US. It has been an adventure so far, and we're looking forward to many more.

Thank you so much for all your prayers! God is certainly working on our behalf here. We'll be back with some literacy updates when we get back from our trip (to Llallagua if you want to google it) next week.