Estoy en Collique!

Hola amigos!

I made it safely to Lima last night around 10pm and found Jessie (the missionary I'm living with) and our taxi driver, Raul, with no trouble at all! It was great getting to know a little about Jessie on the taxi ride to her and Christopher's home in Collique. They live in a fully functional apartment on the third floor of the OSA building, and they definitely have spoiled me with a large room and my own bathroom! Christopher and Jessie gave me a quick tour of their apt and told me what to do if there were to be a bad tremor - we would meet in the safest part of the apartment. Its funny they told me this, because I actually did wake up at about 5am to a small tremor. It definitely wasnt a bad one at all (not to worry, Mom!) because I even thought it might have been in my dreams. Turns out, Christ and Jessie "dreamed" the same thing!
This morning I met little Diego (Christopher and Jessie's 5 1/2 month old) but Joshua was already at school. Jessie, Diego, and I went to the grocery store to get food for the next couple of weeks. To get there I got to see parts of Collique because we had to walk to the main street to catch a "combies", which are small vans that people use as taxis. This was an interesting experience! They cram as many people in as they can to the comas and people are always getting on and off. Jessie said we were lucky because we got a calm driver today!

Its already a little hard digest the conditions that people live in here, but I'm looking foward to exploring Collique more. Its definitely the poorest area of the world that I've been to - the closest thing I can compare it to are the favelas in Brazil. On Thursday morning I am going to help teach a breast feeding class to a group 6 mothers with the help of an OB Nurse and Jessie. Please pray that the class will go well and be effective! Ive breifly met a few of the OSA staff members and everyone has been so gracious. I'm looking forward to getting to know them better.

Thanks for the prayers! Chao chao!
Elizabeth