Peruvian Family

I haven't had a chance to write about the weekend until now, but I got to spend last weekend with a Peruvian family. If I remember correctly, the family consists of a mother, two daughters in their twenties, 2 turtles, a rabbit, a cat, 3 birds, and 8 dogs...all inside the house. There could be more, but I'm not sure. The house was never quiet. Not a word of English was spoken, and by Sunday I had a pretty bad headache. I probably ate more food than I have ever eaten in one weekend, but Peruvians do know how to cook. They find it surprising and sad to hear that I eat sandwiches, macaroni, and cereal for just about every meal and don't mind it at all (I live alone and don't know how to cook, what can I say). Sunday was election day, so no public meetings were allowed. Since we couldn't go to church, we spent some of the morning watching stuff about the election on TV. Then I went with the daughters to the market. It was very crowded and different from any market I have ever gone to buy food! For example, they had live chickens in the market; you pick which one you want and they kill it right in front of you. The girls had a great time telling me what people were saying about me. I wasn't paying attention to a man with a microphone, but they said when we walked by he said, "And here's a friend from the United States! Everybody say hi to her. Hi, Miss. Hi, Miss. MISS...HI!". I had no clue. I think the girls thought the funniest thing was when we were walking back to the house and a lady said very loudly, "Una gringa!!". I said that lady must be very intelligent.
A little before 3 we left so the three of them could vote. They all had to vote in different places, there were a lot of people, and voting ended at 4, so we were rushing around. I went in the school with the daughter who is my age and waited in line with her until she was able to go inside the classroom. When she went inside, I waited outside and got to talk to a lady who was waiting for her husband. I had a lot of fun talking to this lady because I could understand her really well. There are some people I can understand well, and others that I have no idea about any of the words that come out of their mouths. Afterward we walked around Jockey mall for a while (they all wanted to go in the pet store!), then we walked around a park in Barranco (a district in Lima). It had a pretty view of the ocean, and there were many people all around.
It was such a blessing to be able to spend the weekend with this family. I felt bad that I didn't talk a whole lot, but I know they understand that my vocabulary is limited right now.

Please continue to pray for Mercedes, and also my other teacher Antonio. With this being the week before Easter, we got to talk a lot about how and why we celebrate Easter, and I got to hear about what is important to them. Thursday (celebrating the Last Supper) and Friday (the day of Christ's death) are two days that are more important to them than Sunday (the day we celebrate Christ's resurrection). Terri and I explained that, for us, Friday is a special day- a day to meditate and be thankful that Christ sacrificed His perfect life for us. But Sunday is very important because it is the day Christ arose--He overcame death and won! The fact that they said Sunday is not as important to them made me wonder if that is why they have so many crosses with Jesus still on it?