A Little Globe Trotting

Here's the deal: I wrote the following post near the beginning of September but didn't have time to add pictures right away...and now here it is almost November. *sigh* It seems a little irrelevant at this point, but oh well. :)

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So it's been a busy summer, to say the least, and I haven't quite come to grips with the fact that it's almost fall now. Since I've been pretty lax about posting, here's a recap of what I've been up to.

As I mentioned before, the summer started with a 2-week work trip to Prague, Czech Republic, in May. The weather was colder than expected and the shower blocks were a hike from our cabins with very little hot water, but we had a good retreat anyway. We had more than 200 people attend. While most of them sat in seminars all day, my days were filled with office work, planning communication talks, and photographing the events for a special issue of my magazine (you can download it from this website.) The highlight for me was spending two days touring Prague and the Karlstejn Castle.

I've finally uploaded photos of my Czech adventure here.

Then I met up with Eric in Italy for two weeks, which I mentioned in my previous blog. (Full blog account available here and my photos here.)

After that I got to spend a few weeks at home, before heading off to my next adventure: taking a mission trip to Peru to work with Peru Projects, a member of OCI. This was another work trip, but completely different. We flew into Lima, then up to Pucallpa, where we spent 10 days building a church in the little village of Nueva Era. In the evenings we held revival meetings at the building site. Also, part of our group held medical clinics in various villages and out on a medical mission launch. I also go to fly out to the mission launch for a day, which was my first time in a seaplane--it was pretty cool!

Being in charge of a group of 18 people had its stressful moments, but in general we had a great team and lots of fun. We were building with super-hard wood, so lots of bent nails and mashed fingers, but now I'm pretty confident with a hammer! :)

Pucallpa is in the jungle with only the airport and one road connecting it to the outside world--a 24-hour bus trip to Lima, which is why we flew. :) Being in the jungle, it was very hot and humid. There was no air conditioning in any of the buildings, so we were very grateful for electric fans in our rooms at night. But working hard out in the sun all day, we were all drenched in sweat and had to consciously stay hydrated with water and Gatorade (which we had brought with us). For the second time this summer I found myself in a place with no hot water in the showers, but this time it really wasn't so bad.

We managed to get the church done on time and had a dedication service in it our last Sabbath there. Then on Sunday we flew back to Lima. There our group split up, with some of them flying back to the States.

The rest of us flew down to Cusco the next morning. We took a tour of the city, enjoyed the colorful shopping opportunities, and ate at some interesting little restaurants. It was a lot colder in Cusco and several of us had altitude headaches. Pucallpa is at 500 ft, while Cusco is at 10,800 ft, up in the Andes Mountains.

The next day we caught a train to Machu Picchu, which was amazing! As with most world-wonders, pictures don't do it justice. After taking a guided tour, we went to see if we could climb Wynnapicchu, the rounded peak sticking up behind the ruins in all the famous pictures. They only allow 400 people to climb it each day, and as we signed in, the last member of our group was #399! It was a steep climb and the thin-ish air didn't help, but we all made it up and it was worth the effort.

We took the train back to Cusco that evening, then early the next morning we found ourselves once again on a plane heading to Lima. We found a very good vegetarian restaurant right around the corner from our hotel for lunch, and then a group of us went exploring. We went down to the coast and touched the eastern side of the Pacific Ocean in the Southern Hemisphere. :) Then we visited the largest fountain park in the world (according Guinness Book) which was pretty cool after dark. To end the evening we went to a park overlooking the ocean and enjoyed the lights sparkling on the water.

And that was Peru. The next morning we flew home. This was my first time to South America and I loved it! Here's the link to my Peru pictures.

However, that wasn't the end of my travels for the summer! I got home on a Thursday night, took Friday off, and went into work on Monday to load up a rental truck. Then bright-and-early Tuesday our office team drove down to Tampa, Florida--a 9-hour drive--for the annual ASI convention. Manning a booth for a week is not my favorite activity, but at least my co-worker and I were able to slip away one afternoon to visit the beach 45-minutes away.

That brings us up to the middle of August. Since then I've been home, trying to catch up at work and around the house, and trying to wrap my mind around the fact that we're already into September.