Language Study - Week 8

The main focus of our day here in Arequipa has been language study. Over these last few weeks we have felt that we have progressed a little more in our ability to communicate in Spanish. We recognise that we have a long way to go but we have begun to feel much more confident in speaking in Spanish and have been able to pick up quite a bit more than previously.


On Sunday we went to church as usual and as has been the case were going expecting not to understand much of the sermon. This had proved to be a little frustrating for us over the last number of weeks, however on Sunday past we recieved a real surprise. We were able to understand most of the sermon, we understood all the main points and many of the sub-points and anecdotes. What a blessing it was to us!


Recently we had also decided that in order to continue developing in our language study we would need to have more oportunities to converse with people outside of the language school and beyond our current visits to the supermarket and markets. On Sunday as we were leaving church we were invited to a small group Bible study (which of course is in Spanish). This was a real answer to prayer. Unfortunately we are both not able to go to this Bible Study together but we have decided that since the study is weekly we will take it week about. On Monday past Alicia went to the Bible Study for the first time. She really enjoyed the study and was able to understand most of the discussion on Romans 12:1-2. Most of the people who attend this study are a similar age to ourselves and so she found it really good to be able to mix with Peruvian's at the same stage as us in life.


I (Dave) have also been asked to play football with a number of Peruvians that I met through the language institute. Again this has provided an opportunity to make new Peruvian friends and to be able to use what we learn at the language school. It has also provided me with an opportunity to play football for the first time in 6 months since I broke my ankle. (Alicia would appreciate your prayers for my safety as I get back into football again!)


This weekend we hope to have two of our language teachers Julio and his wife, Miriam for lunch, either Saturday or Sunday. It should be good as they both speak English but we will probably end up speaking Spanish for most of time.

Thank You once again for praying for us!

We have really appreciated your prayers and the way so many of you have followed what we have been up to through this blog. We regularly thank God for you and for your faithfulness in remembering us. We know that God has answered many of your prayers and have had a deep sense of His presence since we arrived here three months ago now. Right now we would appreciate your prayers that God would keep us safe here in Arequipa, and again to continue praying for our increased understanding and ability to speak Spanish.

Life in Arequipa

Apologies to those who check this blog regularly that we have not updated the blog for a while. Our life in Arequipa is following a fairly routine pattern now. This is not to say that we are not enjoying our time here but generally our daily routine involves getting up, getting ready, taking Sarah to nursery, going to the Language Institute, picking Sarah up from nursery, going home and doing homework.

In between these routine items we sometimes find time to do something different like watch a movie, have our dinner out or visit a market for some shopping.

We sometimes find ourselves feeling we should be more advanced in our language study but then we have to remind ourselves that we have actually only done 6 weeks at the institute and will be here until at least September. When we look at it that way we realise how much we have been able to pack into a short space of time. Some days when we are out we have interactions with Peruvians which leaves us feeling satisfied that we could commmunicate well, while other times we come away completely disccouraged as we were unable to understand a word!

On the whole last week was a really positive week for both Alicia and myself at the Language Institute and we really seemed to be progressing well. We were taught a new tense last week and it opened up alot of new possibilities in our communication. However, Friday was an incredibly frustrating day for us both. For some reason neither of us were able to remember much in our practical classes and really struggled - even with the elementary stuff! I guess it just shows that there are good days and bad days and not to be too discouraged by the bad days. To be fair by the end of each day we are pretty tired from the studying but particularly by Friday we are exhausted and in need of the weekend.

When we returned from Lima we began potty training Sarah. Initially it seemed like an impossible task, but after a few days she began to get the hang of it. We have been so thankful for tiled floors - it has made a change from me flooding the floors!

Back in Arequipa

We arrived back in our apartment in Arequipa last night after a very productive week away. We left for Tacna last Tuesday and had a couple of days to relax, revise through some Spanish notes and do some homework.

On Wednesday we had to travel through from Tacna to Arica, Chile. Although Alicia and I both had our VISA Sarah was in Peru as a tourist as we could not apply for the VISA until we were in Peru, however in order to collect the VISA we had to leave the country! The closest and easiest way to do this was to make the one hour journey from Tacna through to Arica. Fortunately everything went well and we were only in Chile for a few hours. Having the VISA then cleared us to apply for Sarah's residency card which we would have to collect in Lima.

On Friday morning in Tacna we had a field meeting with the other missionaries, which was nice as it gave us an opportunity to see all the other missionaries. Unfortunately things took a little turn for the worse on Friday evening when I (Dave) had some pineapple juice that was off. I woke up with food poisoning in the middle of the night. Fortunately the effects only lasted about 24 hours and was back to myself by Sunday evening.

On Sunday evening we headed off to Lima to collect Sarah's residency card. Once again everything worked out well and we found we had a little extra time in Lima to relax and to look for things that we can't get in Arequipa.

Our time away was very productive, although it is always nice to be back home again and to get on with things. Obviously since we were away we were not able to attend language classes, however we will resume classes once again on Easter Monday.

We trust that all of you will have a peaceful Easter whatever you are doing and that you will have some time just to reflect on the wonderful gift of eternal life that we have because of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

An Apology
It has been drawn to my attention that some of you may have received an strange email from us. I did not intentionally send any email but I believe that the email was sent as a result of me opening an email from a friend. I received an email from a friend inviting me to join an online forum. I read the invite but did not join the forum but it seems as a result email addresses were taken from my address book and invites were sent to you (and from what I believe some were in Spanish!). Please accept my apologies for this but don't worry either as it is NOT a virus! Hopefully I will not have anymore technological problems!

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!

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.