Bad Beasties but a Brilliant Box

Would you like the good news or the bad news first? I'll start with the bad!

I haven't said anything about this on my posts in the past few weeks, but I've been having a recurring health problem. The old tummy was not very happy sometimes, and it seemed to be happening fairly frequently. I finally got round to having an analysis at the lab, and the bad news is that I have three parasites that need to be got rid of! This is not at all unusual here. And thankfully there are medicines readily available for the eviction of such unwanted residents. I started on a medicine last night and have to take it for the next week; it's quite strong, but so far I haven't felt too many side effects. I won't tell you what parasites I have; you might look them up online and freak out... :-) But not to worry; I'm getting better!

On a happier subject, today I travelled to Tarapoto (2 hours away) to pick up a box of books that was sent from the States. The books are donations from my mum and a few ladies in the church for the little children of Annie Soper Christian School. Thank you very much, everyone who donated! I read all of them this afternoon and am looking forward to bringing them into school tomorrow. It's not worth explaining why the box went to Tarapoto instead of Moyobamba, why I had to go on a school day, and why I had to provide photocopies of my passport to collect it; let's just say I was a bit annoyed about how inconvenient things had to be.

My trip to Tarapoto started very early this morning - we left the house at half 5, got a minivan at 6 and arrived by half 8. I sat in the front and got to enjoy the scenery being lit up by a young sun. It's such a beautiful area, and if only the windscreen of the minivan had been cleaner my photos would've turned out a little less fuzzy!

The super books for the Annie Soper kiddie winkles

Beautiful scenery on the road between Moyo and Tarapoto

Could be mistaken for Scotland, couldn't it?!

Mototaxis!!! I'm a fan!

A mototaxi getting some TLC at the petrol station

Looking down from the road onto a little place by the River Mayo

New places, people and food

I have just had a lovely time with the people of a little church in the district of Lluyllucucha (say that 5 times fast!). I am hoping to attend that church for the next couple of months. The people are really friendly and meet at the side of some members' house. I've been getting to know an English missionary called Marion who is in Moyobamba through Latin Link. She has been helping out in this church for a while, and I am so grateful to have an English-speaking friend who can explain some cultural things to me.

Yesterday I went to the thermal baths in the afternoon with Yolanda and Marion. I thought it would be a lovely way to relax after a week with the children (they are great kids, but tiring too!). Well! As soon as I entered the very busy thermal baths, I started hearing 'Miss Megan! Miss Megan!' Lots of my students were there with their families! I had to laugh...no escaping them! 

I've visited a few new places around and about, one of which is a lookout point from Moyobamba, down the side of the hill, to the river below and to the surrounding area. It's called Tahuishco, and there are LOTS of steps from that point down to the river. I recently ran up and down them with a teacher from the school...and my muscles are still recovering...! The English teacher I work with, Pilar, took me there a few weeks ago with her son Jacob after we'd had breakfast at her house. She has been very kind to me, and I enjoy spending time with her. There are a few photos below of her and her son.

Two typical foods of the 'selva' (jungle) that I have recently tried are also pictured below. One is the juane, which is a ball of sticky rice with a bit of chicken in the middle; it's wrapped up and cooked in these cool bijau leaves. The other dish is a peanut soup called inchicapi that Yolanda made for me to try; it has peanut, yuca (a veg which looks a little bit like potato when it's floating in the soup) and chicken. Que rico! (How tasty!)

Oh, and there's a picture of a little visitor that we often have in the house. I think he's quite cute! :-)

Breakfast with Pilar and Jacob

View from the Punta de Tahuishco

With Jacob at Tahuishco

The juane, before it's unwrapped

Revealing the deliciousness inside (with beans and fried banana in the background)

Inchicapi, peanut soup

Little guest :-)

One and a half weeks down

Classes are well under way now, and I'm getting to know the names of the students and which ones are the trouble-makers! I am really enjoying my work here in Annie Soper, and hopefully it won't be too long till I have some photos to share with you. I am helping in all of the preschool and primary classes - children from age 3 (adorable!) to 6th graders. The preschool classes are obviously a lot simpler and require a lot more Spanish; we do lots of worksheets and colouring in and repeating hundreds of times. The children are so funny...I always have a smile on my face! Even when they call me 'Miss Mega'...haha :-) I love the questions they ask - 'You're from another country, aren't you?' and 'Why is your skin that colour?' And I love all the many hugs and kisses I get on a daily basis!

Tonight and tomorrow night I have meetings at school with the parents of the little ones and the primary children. The meetings are a welcome to the school year with the teachers and headmaster, and I will have to introduce myself there.

I really need to get cracking on my project for university. I have a paper to write and quite a lot of research to do before the middle of May. The subject of the paper is not very specific - something about the culture, language, socio-economic status, politics, etc, of the country or town where I'm based. I'm very glad that I am in an interesting place like Moyobamba instead of a Spanish city, because I have many unique options of themes to research. At the moment I am doing some general reading about Moyobambino writers and the local folklore. You can pray that I will be able to settle soon on my subject and find lots of helpful books and helpful people to interview!

Thanks for the Boxed Goodies!

I was thrilled to come home from school today to two packages from the United States! My mum sent me a package with some granola bars and sweets and the all-important tea bags. And the youth group from Grace Baptist sent me a super box full of goodies - thanks to all of you who contributed! I am looking forward to snacking on everything as I read the book you sent! It really brightened my day to receive these lovely things, and I couldn't resist sharing my excitement with everyone. :-)

Oh, the delight in opening all these lovely things!

This is my excited face! :-)

The gift of stickers

Day 2 went very well too. I had my first class with the three year olds. They are so cute! Some poor little ones were upset to be away from their parents, but most of them were quite wide-eyed and happy to learn the word 'hello!' with the Mickey Mouse puppet. I also had two fourth grade classes, second grade (which was very fun too) and fifth grade.

I was given three stickers by students in various grades, which makes me smile a lot. :-) I put them on my hands.

When I introduce myself to my classes, I let them ask me three questions - in English, of course. It's quite funny to hear what they come up with. Today the best ones were: Do you like apple? and What can't you do? haha...didn't take long to answer the second one...just joking... :-)

This evening I walked to the centre with Yolanda, and on our way back we stopped for a little ice cream. I can never say no to ice cream! I was eager to try the grape flavour of ice cream, since Martha MacPherson had told me about it before I left Aberdeen. I have tried it and enjoyed it!!

Lovely sticker gifts from students today

Off to a rainy start

It seems strange to have the first day of the school year in March, but there we are. I had a nice start to the school year, although the rain was heavy, turning the grass and roads into mud baths and dirtying my smart black shoes!

School started at 7:00 am. Yes, you read that right: 7:00 am! Eesh. I didn't have anything to do for the first couple of hours, but later we had an opening ceremony for the school where there were lots of formalities and lots of fidgety children.

I had a first grade class, double period, just before lunch time. And I really enjoyed it! There are about 30 in the class, so they're quite a handful. But their energy and enthusiasm and frank comments and questions are just so endearing. We were learning how to say 'what's your name?' and 'my name's ____'. It was obviously a novelty to have a foreigner in the class, and I got lots of stares and shy smiles.

When I introduced myself, I asked them if they knew where Scotland was. I explained it was really, really far away, and one little boy in the front row stated solemnly that it really was far - like, 40 kilometers! :-) Another little boy grabbed my wrist as if he was testing to see if I was real or if my skin felt the same as his; and a little girl started playing with my frizzy hair (the humidity is doing nothing for me!), declaring that she loved it!

Later I had a fourth grade class, which wasn't quite as fun, since many of them didn't have any drive to learn English and wanted to mess around. Pilar, the teacher I'm working with, says it may be a difficult year with this group!

Overall, it was a good first day, and tomorrow I'll get to meet the adorable preschoolers in their first English class!

Jungle Barbie

I mentioned in the previous post that Yolanda had got me involved in a children's campaign that the church was running last week. It happened on three afternoons, from Thursday to Saturday, and we got an average attendance of just under 200 children from the area. A great number!

My job was to help out with the actions and dances for the songs that we were going to sing with and for the children. The theme of the campaign was 'Jesus is my Superhero', and some of the songs we sang talked about various well-known superheroes who are nothing compared to Jesus. One of the songs mentioned Barbie...I didn't know she was a superhero...but anyway... The people running the campaign thought it was just hilarious and so appropriate that the new white girl should play the part of Barbie! Apparently they didn't notice I didn't have blonde hair or perfectly shaped body...haha.

On the first afternoon, I found out that we were getting costumes too! Someone had gone out and borrowed superhero outfits for us to wear in our dances, and my Barbie outfit was a Snow White dress!!! So there I was, dancing away in my Snow White costume (something I haven't worn since my mum made me my first beloved Snow White costume when I was little!).

Since then, I have had children in the area call out to me, 'Hola, Barbie!' Oh dear. What a reputation I have now.

However, I'm making it sound like Barbie was the centre of attention at this campaign, and she really wasn't. Jesus' love and amazing sacrifice were explained to the children on all three nights, and there were lots of children who came forward to give their lives to Christ at the end of the meetings. Perhaps some of them were only following their pals up to the front, or perhaps some thought they were going to get a prize if they said they'd accepted Christ. But we hope and pray that many young lives were truly given to Jesus through this campaign, and that the people of the church here will maintain contact with them and their families.

The campaign was one of the Samaritan's Purse ministries, so on the final afternoon the children received a box full of goodies! It was so delightful to watch them open their boxes and enjoy the contents. These are the kind of boxes that many of us have put together at school or church around Christmas time - shoe boxes and plastic boxes that we fill with toiletries like soap and toothpaste and with toys and sweets and games. It was a privilege for me to see the receiving end of these boxes, to be with the children for whom they are intended and to watch them open them. And I'll take this opportunity to encourage people to make up these boxes when you have a chance; it's worth it! I had fun explaining some of the North American contents to the children - what a Tootsie Roll is, how to use a Slinky, translating some written instructions and messages, etc.

On Friday night, after the children's meeting, I was invited to go to the thermal baths outside Moyobamba with a girl from the church. She took me on her motorbike (which is still a novelty for me and is thoroughly exciting!), and we spent the evening in the hot pools. It was amazing! I haven't been in contact with hot water for weeks, so stepping into those outdoor hot pools was a wonderful experience, one that I think I'll be repeating many times while I'm here in Moyo!

I was also invited to the young people's meeting on Saturday night at the church. It was nice to meet people my own age, and hopefully I'll form some friendships in the group and be able to go out with them to do things at the weekends.

Yesterday was the start of our final week of preparations for the beginning of school. I'm making lots of activities and games for the preschool and primary age children, and I'm getting quite excited about playing these games with the kids! There's been quite a lot of rain lately, and the roads are just mud baths. I bought a pair of wellies yesterday, making my walk to and from school a now pleasantly squishy experience. :-)

The children at the campaign

Dancing to a song about superheroes... I'm on the left in the Snow White gown!

Thrilled to open their boxes!