A Busy Week Ahead

This coming week promises to take us out of our usual routine of classes, followed by homework each day. We will break from this routine on Tuesday morning when we will fly from Arequipa to Tacna. We plan to stay Tuesday night in Tacna and then we have to cross the border into Chile on Wednesday morning. Up until now Sarah has been living in Peru as a "tourist", we could only apply for her Visa after we had recieved our official residency card. Her Visa is ready to be collected in Lima and her residency card will also be picked up in Lima however before we do this we have to leave the country. On Wednesday we will then leave Peru, cross over into Arica, Chile and visit the consulate there.

When we return from Chile we will stay in Tacna for a few more days as we have a field conference on Friday. We look forward to this because it is our first chance to see many of the missionaries since our arrival here in Peru.

Following this we will fly north to Lima in order to visit immigration and collect Sarah's visa and residency card. This will likely take at least 24 hours. We anticipate flying back to Arequipa again the following Wednesday. The Institute is closed on the Thursday and Friday for Easter so it will give us a couple of days to recover from our travels. We would appreciate your prayers concerning our safety during our travels and also particularly that all the paperwork could be dealt with smoothly and quickly.

Life in Arequipa

Sorry it's been a while since we last posted an entry on our blog site. We have been keeping busy studying and doing homework. We are enjoying getting to grips with the language a little more each day. In Peru they say "Poco a poco" which means little by little. Some days we wonder if we will ever get to grips with it while other days we seem to do well.

Sarah continues to enjoy her nursery and has made quite a few friends. We are so glad she has settled so well. She has also made a friend in the church we have been going to. Joaquin is about Sarah's age and last Sunday Sarah chased him around the church insisting that he takes one of her sweets! (As you can imagine church is a little more relaxed here in Peru.)

As well as getting to grips with the language we have been tryin to emerse ourselves in the culture. Last Saturday I (Dave) had the opportunity to go to a men's breakfast at the church of one of my spanish teachers. I really enjoyed it and was good to converse with some of the men, although spicy onion soup with beef chunks in it with raw onions and tomatoes on the side were not quite what I expected at 7.45am!!! I managed to finish my bowl but needless to say I did not go for seconds!