La Punta, ceviche, la playa, ceremonia

     This past Saturday was a big day for me. After going to Restaurando Vidas for breakfast, I stayed for the service that was going on. I’m loving the singing there, and I’m getting to know more and more words in the songs (there aren’t any projectors or hymnals to help me out). The actual messages though, I’m still having a hard time focusing on and understanding. I don’t know if it’s because I don’t have a Spanish/bilingual Bible, because the microphone actually makes it harder to hear the words the pastor is saying, or what. The services are always long though, and if I get tired by trying to listen, I usually spend time in the Bible myself, or pray, which has also been really good.

     After the service, Lauren and I left the church with Maria, Evelyn, Silvia, another woman from the church, Jonatan, two of the pastors, a prophetess visiting from Miami (originally from Lima), a young singer from L.A. (also originally from Lima), and her friend. Don’t worry, we took three different taxis. Our destination was La Punta, in Callao (cah-yah-oh), which is the point of a city right next to Lima.

called "La Punta" for a reason!

     There, we all crowded into a nice little restaurant right near the water, and food just started coming out to us! “El ataque!” (the attack) as Edgar likes to say right after the food has been served. First, plantain chips and toasted corn kernels (called cancha) in small bowls. Then, clams (still attached to the shells) with diced tomatoes, onions, and cilantro piled on the shell. Then, some kind of seafood wontons, with some kind of brown dipping sauce. All appetizers, by the way, but we each only got one… there were a lot of us. THEN! the CEVICHE and the chicharrón! We kind of did just attack the plates, actually. The ceviche was phenomenal. Raw fish of some kind with sauce, onions, corn pieces, and lots of cilantro. I love cilantro. Chicharrón is a lightly fried meat (it can be chicken, pork, fish...), in this case it was fish. Also verrryy good. Another thing, everything was covered in lime juice: delicious.

ceviche, with corn and sweet and regular potatoes

     After we had finished the wonderful, fresh, seafood, the youngsters (Evelyn, Silvia, Jonatan, Lauren, and I) went to explore some beaches. Another wonderful blessing of the day was the sun! It was sunny the whole day! First time since I’ve been here. The beaches were very rocky… there was no sand! The first beach had big rocks, which were hard to walk on. We found a boat that had my name on it! “Sarita Colonial”… Sarita is a term of endearment, kind of like “little Sarah” or “sweet Sarah.” My family here calls me that J

Silvia, Lauren, Jonatan, and me

     On the way to the second beach we got some ice cream! My first ice cream of Perú: I got a chocolate covered lúcuma bar = yumm! The second beach had smaller rocks, which were actually comfortable to sit and lie on. I actually tried to take a nap! We tried to skip rocks, which didn’t really work very well. We stayed until the sun started to set, which was beautiful.



this one's for you, dad :)

      Last week, I was invited to the ceremony for the tenth anniversary of September 11^th at the US Embassy in Surco, Lima. Lauren and I went to that yesterday, and it was a very sweet ceremony. Both Spanish and English were spoken, a young choir singing, two Peruvian families that had a loved one killed in the Twin Tower attacks present. It made me a good bit homesick… especially as I watched four US Marines present the colors at the beginning of the ceremony. I got teary-eyed thinking of my daddy. I also got teary-eyed later, when the ambassador was talking about honoring those who died… I was just heartbroken by the evil that caused all this heartache. The world is not supposed to be like that.

   

official invite!