Thirsty, anyone?

Wow!  This last month has flown by (I think I say that every month!)  Time seems to never slow down here since I stay so busy with school Monday-Friday and then an afternoon activity every day, whether it be doing "Girls' Nights" with the middle school-aged missionary girls, working at Latidos de Esperanza (the crisis pregnancy center), teaching jazz/ballet dance classes to the missionary girls (I teach 3 classes a week now!),  the weekly SAM prayer meeting, or leading youth group for the missionary kids.  And if that's not enough, I've added something else to the week: Peruvian Bible study! 

That's right, after five and a half months of living in Peru, I have finally started up a Bible study with my Peruvian friends.  Last Friday was our first meeting and we sat and talked about what God has taught us through the lives of various Old Testament Bible figures for 2 and a half hours!!!  (Well, we also threw in lessons on Spanish slang words and Bible jokes in Spanish, but you get the point...it was great!).  We're planning to make it an every Friday night thing.  I'm so excited!  More speaking Spanish and growing in a deeper relationship with the Lord and with my Peruvian brothers and sisters are always a plus! I also get some good Spanish practice when I play ultimate frisbee on Sundays and volleyball on Tuesdays with Peruvian friends.  I know it sounds like a lot, but I wouldn't have it any other way!

Now, since you can rest assured that I haven't fallen off the face of the earth, let me tell you a little bit about the side of the earth in which I am currently residing...

PERUVIAN CULTURE CORNER
Here are some fun facts about popular Peruvian drinks:

1) Inca Kola:  tastes kind of like liquified, carbonated banana Laffy Taffy.  Years ago, Peru was the only country that didn't vote Coca-Cola as the #1 drink of choice...Inca Kola won that vote!  Coca-Cola's solution: buy out Inca Kola! 

2) Pisco:  Peru's national drink, is a clear brandy distilled from fermented grape juice.  It's often used to make the popular mixed drink pisco sour, which consists of pisco, lemon juice, sugar, egg white (!), and bitters.  In recent years, Peru and Chile argued over which country pisco originated, but it was finally declared to be the drink of Peru!

3) Camu Camu: the juice of camu camu berries is bright pink and contains 40 times the amount of vitamin C you will find in a kiwifruit, which has 4 times more than you'd find in an orange!  This drink is very popular in Peru, where camu camu is a native fruit, and is now making it's way around the world (I hear it's becoming pretty popular in Japan).

 
4) Chica Morada: the purple corn drink.  This drink is a Peruvian classic, purple (or blue) corn ground up and boiled along with cloves, cinnamon, sugar, lime juice and fruits such as apple or pineapple.  It's actually been proven to be a natural energy booster as well as a good source of antioxidants!

5) Mazato:  yuca (a root native to Peru) and...are you ready for this?...human saliva!!!  That's right!  The indigenous people of the jungle make this "alcoholic" drink by fermenting yuca or corn with their own saliva.  Pretty disgusting, right?  What if I told you that one of the jungle missionaries in a village outside of Pucallpa has recently made a break-through with an indigenous group by joining them in a fellowship circle to drink this mazato with them...something no other missionary around here has dared to do before!  No?  Still disgusting?  Oh well...here's a short video clip of mazato being made, for your viewing pleasure (and in case you're wondering, yes, the people in Pucallpa do live in houses like the ones you see in this video).

Congratulations, you are officially even more cultured than you already were!  Until next time...God bless!