wait you´re...engaged?!?! AND you´re in peru?

Hi all!

So this isn´t at all news to most of the people reading this, but guess what...I´M ENGAGED! Yaaaayyy! My fiance is a wonderful guy named Bryan Carey, mi amor y madala waka. To catch yall up to speed, he and I have been dating for just over a year now and in Houston a couple of weeks ago, he asked me to spend the rest of my life with him. Of course, I said YES! and we´re planning to get hitched in early August after he works for a while and I (hopefully) am able to go on a couple more medium-term international mission trips.

I would include ¨here¨ a picture of the gorgeous ring he gave me, but alas, I´m in an internet cafe in Huaraz, Peru (!) and to be frank, the connection´s not that super. Bryan, John (his younger brother), Denise (a good friend), and I have been in Peru for about a week and will stay just until Christmas, vacationing at first (we´re just about to get on a night bus to go to Cuzco to spend a day at Machu Picchu) and then spending the majority of our time in Iquitos and Nauta working alongside missionaries and villagers in the jungle. We´re having a wonderful time so far (hiking up Huascaran, seeing the Black Mountains, going to glacier lakes, seeing the ¨thermal baths¨ on my birthday...details to come when the pay-as-you-go internet clock isn´t ticking!), but I think I speak for all four of us when I say that we´re very much ready to get to the latter phase of our trip! Soon we´ll meet Chris, a long-term missionary in Nauta who we´ll stay with for about two weeks, and then Jorge, a Peruvian who will likely take us for a three-week trip into the jungle to distribute toys and pre-Christmas cheer to village kids. I´m not sure when I´ll get a chance to post again, so please keep Bryan, John, Denise, Chris, Jorge, the people we´ll be working with, and me in your thoughts and prayers!

So we may not be deep within the Amazon just yet, but we´ve definitely had some ¨You know you´re in Peru when...¨ experiences. Here´s just a few for your enjoyment. :)

You know you´re in Peru when...
(1) 18 kids cram around 4 computers in the only internet cafe in Mancos, jammin out to hard rock (in English, which they don´t understand a word of) and playing video games. Just like the States, eh?
(2) Bed bugs become a real problem.
(3) The ¨thermal baths¨ that everyone tells you about are not, in fact, outdoor hot springs as you expected, but sulphur-smelling bathtub-fuls of water. Atta way to celebrate your birthday! ;)
(4) Puppies are sold on the side of the road for 5 soleis (about $1.70).
(5) Hamburgers have two layers of french fries in them.
(6) Ice cream with Gladys is a daily event.
(7) Stumbling across a new restaurant for dinner is a marvelous occasion for celebrating with, yet, more ice cream.
(8) Apples come in 1-inch diameter varieties.
(9) You make friends with the two town drunks and end up trading shirts with them right there on the street.
(10) Altitude sickness gets the best of you.
(11) Getting sunburn requires only half the time it would have taken in the States and is about twice as bad (oh yeah...we are closer to the equator and at a much higher altitude than when we were in Texas, aren´t we?).
(12) Every morning you forget that the tallest mountain in Peru is right outside your window. It shocked me how beautiful it was every time.
(13) You reach 14,000 feet in elevation and you´re just barely halfway up Huascaran (22,266 feet)!
(14) You can cram 7 fully-grown adults in a rundown taxi from Musho to Mancos, no problem.

More updates to come! Thank you so much for your thoughts and prayers for us - I miss yall so much! Many blessings and much love!

Stephanie :)