Getting the Lingo

We have now been in Arequipa for over three weeks and settled into our apartment now for about two weeks and our beginning to feel settled here. We have been able to get around the city a little and find our bearings. It has also been interesting shopping and finding out where there best places are to buy things. We are fortunate that there are two supermarkets nearby but for most things it is actually better and much cheaper to get them at the market. It has been fun discovering what market is best for what things.

Sarah continues to settle into and enjoy her nursery. It sounds like it will be great. At present it is alot less structured but next week is when the summer holidays end here and so she will be seperated into age specific classes. Although it is nursery they are very much into interactive learning here even at her age. We were given a list (that filled an A4 page!) of things that we would need to get for her. (Parents provide everything that is used in the classroom, including toilet rolls and soap for the year!) Already Sarah has made some friends and she amuses the helpers by copying everything so she has already picked up some Spanish and understands many of their instructions. We have phased Sarah into the nursery and so for the first week we took her for between an hour and an hour and a half and one of us stayed with her. Last week we started language study for 1 1/2 hours a day and so we left her on her own for the full time and then this week our schedule has increased so she is staying for almost 4 hour a day. Praise God she seems to be adapting well. She always cries when we leave her (which we are told is natural) but when we come back to collect her she is almost always having lots of fun. Sometimes she has cried when we leave nursery saying "more boys and girls."!!!!!

Last week we started language study with a phonetics class. We found this really helpful to get much of our pronounciation right (although we still have a long way to go!) This week and from now on we will have two classes a day, grammar and conversation/practical. Things are much busier this week. Alicia leaves the house with Sarah at 8am and takes Sarah to nursery on her way to the language school for her conversation class which starts at 8.30am. (All the conversation classes are one to one). I then leave the house at 9.30am to get to the language school for 10am when Alicia and I have a grammar class together. This finishes around noon and then Alicia collects Sarah, takes her home, gets her lunch and puts her to bed and then starts her homework while I stay on until 2pm for my conversation class. I walk home and get some well deserved lunch and then if Sarah is still sleeping, make a start on homework. This week so far we have had about 2 hours of homework but it can be anything up to 4 hours. In the afternoon we try to do something with Sarah and then in the evening we may have a little homework to finish off.

At the weekend we hav tried to do something together on the Saturday and then go to church on Sunday. This past Sunday we also had some other missionaries from Northern Ireland here for lunch which was really nice. Since we have come to Arequipa we have attended the same church each Sunday. It is a Baptist Church. We have really enjoyed the friendliness of the people and it has been really good that it is only about 100 yards from our apartment. Hopefully over the coming weeks as our language develops we will be able to get more out of the sermons but in the meantime we have really appreciated Val's sermons on our church website (You are a star Val!!!).

We hope to post the text from our prayer letter on this blog soon but thought that we should also tell you a little more about what is happening in our life at the moment and what a day in our life involves here in Arequipa. Once again thank you to all for thinking of us and for praying for us.

Settled in New House

after nearly a month of living out of suitcases tonight we were finally able to unpack more permanently. This afternoon we moved into a lovely apartment in Arequipa. (We have now been in for more than 8 hours and I have yet to flood anywhere!!) We have spent this evening unpacking and trying to make it "home" for us for the next 6-9 months.

Thank you to those of you who prayed for us with regards to the nursery situation for Sarah. It seems to have worked out well. We have enrolled her in a Christian run nursery just around the corner from the language school where we will be studying. This last week we have been taking Sarah for about 2 hours each morning and staying with her to ease her into the program. Next week we will be starting our language study but we will also be eased in. We will only have 2 hours a day for the first week. The following week we will increase to half days in class, followed by homework.

Thanks again to all who are praying for us and to everyone who is reading this blog and posting comments. It has been a real encouragement to us. Our next steps are to commence language study on Monday and to find ourselves a church to worship in. We have met a number of other missionaries and they all seem to go to different places for church so there seems to be no shortage of places to worship, it is just finding the right place for us.

Thats all for now. Be in touch again soon.

Arrived in Arequipa

We have been in Arequipa now since Tuesday and are living in temporary accommodation that LAtin Link own. We werent too long in it before I (Dave) managed to flood the kitchen floor!!!Yesterday we had the opportunity to view our more permanent place. It is fantastic. God has really been good in the way he has undertaken for our needs. We will move into this place next thursday and for any of you who are on skype we will have internet access there from when we move in. We are currently using cafes to check emails etc. This morning Trevor and Rebecca who had brought us to Arequipa fromIlo left to go back to Ilo. There were a huge help to us in helping us to get settled and showing us the language school where we will be studying. OUr new start date is Mon 19th. Later today we are going to see a Christian nursery where we may send Sarah while we are at language school, there are a number of options for this, we would appreciate your prayers that we would make hte right choice for her. Thats all for now, but we will try to keep you all updated with our latest news. Thanks again for all your prayers.

Arrived in Arequipa

We have been in Arequipa now since Tuesday and are living in temporary accommodation that LAtin Link own. We werent too long in it before I (Dave) managed to flood the kitchen floor!!!Yesterday we had the opportunity to view our more permanent place. It is fantastic. God has really been good in the way he has undertaken for our needs. We will move into this place next thursday and for any of you who are on skype we will have internet access there from when we move in. We are currently using cafes to check emails etc. This morning Trevor and Rebecca who had brought us to Arequipa fromIlo left to go back to Ilo. There were a huge help to us in helping us to get settled and showing us the language school where we will be studying. OUr new start date is Mon 19th. Later today we are going to see a Christian nursery where we may send Sarah while we are at language school, there are a number of options for this, we would appreciate your prayers that we would make hte right choice for her. Thats all for now, but we will try to keep you all updated with our latest news. Thanks again for all your prayers.

Leaving Ilo

We are packed up and due to leave Ilo in about an hour. We have a 4 hour journey to Arequipa. When there we will meet the people at the language school and deal with some stuff in order to settle in. It might be a few days now before we can update this again but we will do our best to get internet access asap.

Still in Ilo

It is hard to believe that it is two weeks since we left Northern Ireland. The time has flown by and we have taken in alot of new things since being here. We are still in Ilo with the Morrow family and although we are keen to commence our language study in Arequipa we are also very content here. The plan was that we would leave tomorrow (Monday) for Arequipa, but at this stage that looks unlikely. The freight we had flown out arrived in Lima and went through customs without any problems and we immediately arranged for it to be sent by truck to Ilo, that was two weeks ago this Tuesday! The company that were dealing with our stuff only dispatch a lorry once it is full. We had teamed up with Trevor who had some items for the camp centre to be sent down as well but it must not have filled the lorry. We got word on Thursday that our stuff was leaving Lima later that afternoon, we have not been in contact with them since to find out if this actually did happen. Tomorrow we will have a better idea when things will arrive but we would not really be able to set up house in Arequipa without much of the stuff so it is better that we wait a few days extra.

In the meantime we have had time to spend with the Morrows which has been nice and we have had the opportunity to see some of the work as well as taking things a little slower, this has been particularly nice since we arrived here quite tired after a busy few weeks and then had a very busy time in Lima. Time to go once again but we will keep you posted on our next move.