Further ace times as evening drew on. Mariaelena came round and we got the chance to chat properly, very cool as we're at kind of a similar place with God at the mo and really encouraging to share all the things He's been releasing us into. Evening then took a slightly less 'spiritual' turn as we watched 'supersize me' with some more friends. Oh so disturbing, think it would have put me off eating rubbish for life if we hadn't had to take the opportunity to make some headway with one of Chris's 5 birthday cakes...

During the afternoon we visited parents of the children who attend the church's Sunday school. Felt really challenged as visiting was probably my least favourite thing to do last time we were here: I find small talk difficult in English and it's really easy to let whoever you are with (peruvian) carry all the conversation. Realising that I really need to rely on God for this and also for hearing words for people- it's not something I can force but just to be aware and listening for God's guidance is important I guess. Neither do I want to force the manner in which things happen, reading Jackie Pullinger for example, is way inspiring but God acts in different ways at different times through His Spirit and He's not to be 'boxed'.*

*Thanks Mike's Mum and Mike for ace advice there!

At lunchtime we were supposed to be meeting up with Ben, a friend ours from uni, out here working for an NGO. He had to come to Trujillo to have a brain scan after being whacked with a chain* but he hadn't got back to us so we figured that he wasn't coming...

The avo took us to Alto Trujillo (the shanty town) to the kids club that used to be one of my favourite bits of the week. Great to see the kids, remember the feeling of horseness u get when trying to shout (in bad spanish) at 60 or so children against the wind and suffer the effects of a pile-on when u make the mistake of shouting 'all the fruits!' when playing 'fruit salad'. Beth peeled the children off one by one and calm was restored.

When we got home we found Ben! Had randomly given him our address a little while before and good thing too as he had been texting me all afternoon to no avail. After chatting to a friendly neighbourhood vigilanty he had managed to work out which house the address actually referred to (house numbers here don't signify much) and was hanging with our Peruvian mum, Maria. Very good times were had as we had dinner with my friend Mariaelena and headed to my old youth cell. Peruvian cell groups always begin with several games of varying degrees of ridiculousness and generally entailing forfeits- especially easy to fall foul of when you're playing games with tongue twisters and spanish is not your first language. Much to our amusement the forfeits demanded this week were to pretend to be a noodle and then a duck, in time to songs well known by the group that described both objects. Both require a certain amount of wiggling and general embarrassment.

The fun of the day was crowned when Ben walked past the girls bedroom and spotted Betho and I sat on the bed together. The room was quite dark, but it really didn't excuse Ben introducing himself to me thinking that I was another volunteer that he hadn't yet met. Bless that boy.

*He's much better now, but continued prayer for full recovery appreciated!

Chicos, nos fuimos de paseo,
Little crisps (Peruvian sweetie pie), don’t smoke in the passageway,

Espero que esten bien
The escape route is well established

Si van a salir, por favour
The van is sour, please

Chequear si sus llaves
Leave your cheques

Abre la puerta de la called
Where I am able to open them on the street

Tienen pan, huevos, jugo…
I am a pan, however, in a jugganaut

Para su desayuno.
The para (military) are desperate.

Maria
Mary

*Not an issue btw!

Mother, however, cut straight through this perspective with her own pearl of wisdom. \"Ah, you just wait 'til the menopause hits you.\"

And I'm sure he will...

\"When not staring intently at rocks...\"

\"(Sympathy vote)...\"

\"I'm a compulsive liar. After I became king...\"

It was a long afternoon.

Am I spending too much time on the computer?

I overheard the little bridesmaid bewailing her very puffy net skirt, 'I've kept getting lots of flies up it'.

Ah, the magic of weddings.