A few visuals...

I thought it might be nice to share a few photos that help to communicate our experiences here. The first is the view of the Andes Mountains out of the airplane window on our way back to Arequipa from Lima. They are dry, dry, dry and above tree line, so the view of the peaks and crevices is breathtaking.


During an afternoon of shopping with my mom in the plaza we realized that it was senior citizen's day in Peru. There was a big parade and lots of singing and dancing - my mom says she felt rather welcomed by all the festivities! This is one of the Quechua women dancing in the square with her traditional top hat, shawl, and pleated skirt.

Here is the "deli section" in the local market - no refrigeration necessary. We love the cheese here - we call it "squeaky cheese" because of the way it squeaks against your teeth. Sounds appetizing, doesn't it? Trust us, it's good!

The first batch of chocolate chip cookies was baked at the orphanage last Thursday. At first they didn't believe me that the dough is as good or better than the actual cookies, but here you can see that they caught on eventually!

These little cars (Tico's by Daewoo) make up 95% of the taxis here in Arequipa. You can tell how small they are by the fact that I'm hunched over trying to see in the window to talk to the driver. They have now banned any additional Tico's from entering the country because they've started to take over the streets! They can squeeze through almost any tight space in traffic and have even been known to drive on sidewalks when a traffic jam is at its worst.

These photos give some taste of the flavor of life here. We love the people of Peru, the beautiful land, and the stories of their history. There are many things about their culture that don't make sense to us, but we love the opportunity to live among the people and learn their stories and their ways of thinking.