On the Map

Just to give you an idea of where we are in Peru.

This is Lima and you can see we are in the San Borja district.

The red arrow is about where our apartment is and the blue arrow is Johanna's parents house. This is about a 10 minute walk.

Happy Mother's Day

Johanna's Grandmother

Tió Coco with everyone.

Tiá Liana with her mom and sister.

Rain Storm

Nothing much happening these days. We are both still looking for steady jobs and I am dealing with the frustration a little better.

Since there is not much happening I thought I would write about a rain storm we had not too long ago. While I was doing something in the living room Johanna called me into the kitchen and said "Look, it is raining." I was very excited because it never rains in Lima. When I looked out of the window this is what I saw.

That is the roof and those little spots are "rain" drops. I looked at her and back at the "rain" and she said that is as good as it is going to get. We ended up having to walk to her parent's house in this torrential down pour and we finally made it but honestly I do not know how. You could barely see the cars coming down the road 3 miles away. It was a crazy time and I am glad the "storm" has passed. A little bit of information, Lima only gets about 20 mm (0.8 inches) of rain every year. I can understand now why people get so excited when ever ANYTHING falls out of the sky.

Stage #2 Frustration

Before I left for Peru my very intelligent sister Karen told me to read about culture shock and learn the different stages. I did this and I think I have just jumped head first into stage #2, the frustration stage. This is where you find that everything in the new place is frustrating and agitating. For example, it is like walking out the door, being greeted by a neighbor and wanting nothing more than to shout obscenities at them. Johanna and I have been working on getting my work visa and for some time now and for some reason it just got to be too much one day. I will not get into the details because it is a long story but just trust that it is very frustrating and these problems would never happen in the US. Anyway I think the important thing is realizing why I am reacting in this way and that realization is helping me to cope with my new challenges. I am anxiously awaiting the next stage, Acceptance, but until I get there I will be as patient as possible and try realize that just because things are different they are not necessarily wrong.