You totally have that TLC song in your head now don't you? Hahahaha....
Alright well I didn't title this post "Don't Go Chasing Waterfalls" just to torture you with 90's hip hop music. I'm going to be discussing, among other things, my recent trip to the selva (jungle) about 3 hours north of Huanuco, near a city called Tingo Maria with the other YAVs to climb waterfalls!! But before I get into all of that and what I've been up to lately I wanted to introduce to all of you out there reading my blog, if you don't already know them, the other YAVs. They are super cool people and one of the bigger support systems for me here. I'm including links to their blogs, because they have really interesting things to say, and usually express our mutual experiences better than I can. So please check them out to so you can get the full Peruvian YAV experience.
Debbie and Harry Horne: Debbie is our fearless site coordinator and surrogate Mama. Her husband Harry is a seminary professor and they live in Lima. Debbie laughs more than almost anybody I know (yes more than me) and is always there with a smile and a comforting embrace. Harry is broading our theological horizons by serving as our Bible study facilitator for our retreats and has assigned us Binding the Strong Man by Chet Meyers to read (really amazing book that looks at the Gospel of Mark from a socio-political stance). In a couple short months they have pretty much become two of my favorite people!
Sarah "Alta" Terpstra: She is the "other" Sarah, and thus to differentiate between the two of us, she has been dubbed "Alta," meaning tall, and I have been dubbed "Baja," meaning short, for the obvious reasons that I am short and she is tall. It's funnier, I promise, when we're being introduced to new people here and we tell them our little joke. Sarah is from Tennesse, loves alvacados, has a very musically talented family, and used to be a park ranger. She is serving her year high in the "harsh beauty," as she puts it, of Huancavelica, over 11,000 ft above sea level, working with agricultural development. She is also a very talented photographer and you should at least check out her photos.
Ginna Irby: Here is Ginna, from Virginia, with one of the only llamas I've seen up close since I've been here. She is probably one of the funniest people I have ever met. We bonded way back at the YAV placement event over our mutual love of The Office, so that automatically gave her like 1000 cool points from me. She works with the Fraternidad de Cristiano, a collection of churches in Lima, where she works with Youth and Children, among many other things. She is our resident guitar guru and is helping me to expand my music palet by making awesome mixes for us YAVs.
Alissa King: My southern neighbor, Alissa is from Texas and is a proud Roo and graduate from Austin College in good old Sherman. Since Alissa was not at the Placement Event, I only just met her in August at orientation, but I heard it from several AC authorities that she was good people. She is living in Huanta and is working for Radio Amata. Alissa has taught me the subtle joys that come from a cheesy romance novel and the two of us share a mutual guilty pleasure in our enjoyment of the Twilight Series. 
Anna Gray: Alaskan native Anna, who also happens to be part bear, probably has the best stories from her childhood in Alaska, usually beginning with "One time when I was a kid, my mom..." She's a great sport when we make fun of her accent and a great friend. Anna is working in Huancayo, also with Agricultural development. She adds the cool west coast bohemian element to our group (along with Joe) and once had dread locks in college.
Joe Tobiason: Our other west coast "hippie," but he's too cool for labels. Joe is from Washington state and is living and working Lima for the Red Unidos Manos and CENCA. Joe is the most laid back person you will ever meet, but he probably needs that attitude to be able deal with the 5 of us girls. Joe does a lot of good work with The Red's newsletter La Retama (check out the latest issue with an article by yours truly) and the podcast Kuska, both of which are great places to keep with with what's going on here in Peru and the work of the various organizations that we are working with during this year. Joe is our other photographer in residence and has a wonderful artistic eye!So there you go - the Peru YAV class of 2009-2010. One of the perks of being a YAV is that every 6 to 8 weeks or so we have retreats in different parts of the country together to catch up and debrief our experiences thus far. Our first retreat was in my home sweet home of Huanuco. I had so much fun hosting my friends and I'm so glad that I could share with them life and work. We stayed at the organic farm just outside of town run by Paz y Esperanza that also serves as a shelter for sexually abused children. We spent the weekend talking, laughing, eating way too many fresh dairy products (so worth the extra poundage), getting eaten by bugs, and sharing with one another our struggles and triumphs over the past month and a half.
On Friday of our retreat weekend we traveled to a part of the jungle just outside of Tingo Maria. We got up before the crack of dawn, and drove almost 4 hours to our destination, all the while trying to sleep on the bumpy twisty roads. Once we got there we met our guide, Guiermo, and sat down for a quick breakfast before hiking up to the waterfalls. We got to our first waterfall and strapped into harnesses and began climbing one by one up the waterfalls. In total we climbed 12 waterfalls, and it was one of the most difficult and exhilarating things I've ever done. Just being in the middle of the beauty of the jungle was breath-taking. And at one point in the day someone (sorry I don't remember who) made the comment that life just wants to live here. On every space there were green and growing things, insects moving, butterflys fluttering around in slivers of sunlight that managed to pass through the trees, just a complete abundance of life. And then we started talking about how the jungle was a metaphor for the Kingdom of God. That this is what it's supposed to be like, full of beauty and diversity, of life - life abundant! Being in Peru has already taught me so much about seeing God in everything around me, and it has allowed me the quiet time that I think I've been needing in my life to just sit with myself and God and spend some good one on one time. It's definitely been one of the more unexpected gifts about living here.
I'm going to stop now since this post is pretty long already. Next blog topic - Thanksgiving! Thanks for reading and feel free to leave any comments, questions, reactions in the comments section.
