Whew Weeeee!!!!!

Welp finally made it to Peru!! The flights took forever cuz of the totes long layovers in Colombia and Lima whew weeeee!!?!?!? I’m fairly sure that I haven’t slept in a legit 37 hours I’m so doggone tired, fixin’ to hit the bed, but I need a good ol shower in my life right about now before that can happen. Before I get into talking about the whole flying thing let’s speak about how Missy and I nearly almost missed our flight. So we left Missy’s digs at 10:30AM, on a magical journey to DC which according to the GPS and Missy’s dad takes about 3 hrs. Being that our flight left at 4:30PM I wasn’t too worried about getting to the port on time, so leaving at this time was just peachy in my opinion. Mr. T (Missy’s dad) took the duty of driving on out to DC, I was in the backseat enjoying the ride and listening to some good ol kuntry music while stomping my foot to the honky tonk beats of my boy Luke Bryan + Aldean in an oh so subtle manner. The ride started out fantastic as Mr. T, Missy and I chatted it up about the fantastic voyage we were about to embark on, the dangers of city folk driving in the country on winding roads, and the ups and downs of this roller coaster we call life and love. After a solid hour of convo I had to fall asleep cuz I love to fall asleep in the car, I don’t know it’s just something about a car ride that puts me to sleep like a lil babe. Before I knew it all of a sudden the car came to a stop on the interstate and I woke up wondering “hey why aren’t we moving anymore?” Then in full filling my worst fears the message came on the radio that we all did not want to hear. To out lucks a tractor trailer carrying explosives done flipped on over and caught on fire! The lady on the radio sounded distressed, but she didn’t even know the extent as to which I was freaking out inside. She calmly explained that the interstate was closed both ways for a stretch of seven miles, and at this point I was shaking my boots (I wasn’t really wearing boots it’s summer come on, it’s just a saying). The next exit to turn off the state was 2 miles away, so I was like oh boy everybody and their mother are gonna fix to turn off there too. Those 2 miles took an hour and a half to get to, and at this point it was 1:30PM, and we were still 2 hours from the port! Desperate times call for desperate measures and we took a different route to hit the state again, avoiding all the hum bug traffic. The risk paid off and we made it to the state after much debate as to what to do and which route to take. Mr. T kept his cool tude on ice during the entire ordeal and dang I was so impressed, he didn’t even speed, if it were me driving I’da flew 97 mph to the port. We missed the port’s exit, but Mr. T did a smooth Ueeee to turn the car around to hit the exit again, getting us to the port a little after 3PM. After almost getting a self induced UTI on both of our parts Missy and I ran to the gate just in time to get on that doggone flight, kickin’ it outta this beautiful land of the free.

I tried using the pay phones there, but I didn’t figure out how to my ultimate dismay…I’d learn the way of the pay phone later read on.  I met a wonderful little fella at the Lima airport who showed me how to make a call from a pay phone, it was easily one of the most difficult things I’ve ever had to do, but together we got the job done and I called the most important people in my life to let em know I’m safe and sound like a bug in a rug. On the airplane they gave me wet wipes which were warm and I at first didn’t know what to do with them so I asked Missy and she told me to wipe my hands duh! So I did just that, I’m so stoked that my money is going to good use with these luxury products given to me on the plane. This guy stole the window seat on our first flight to Colombia, I was fixin’ to give it to Missy cuz she was jonesing to look out the window, but he seemed nice and I didn’t want to start a tussle on our first flight out of the country so I made friends with him, he was a fine gentlemen after all. I was also excited that I could watch movies on the flight, I watched The Pursuit of Happiness with my bro Will Smith. I was bummed that we landed during the final 20 minutes of the movie so I couldn’t finish it, oh well I already knew the ending anyway, but still the pilot should have informed me so I could have fast forwarded it to the end ya know, would have been thoughtful of him to make a little announcement I’m sure I wasn’t the only one who got cut off from finishing a movie. I also felt so sophisticated drinking a petit hazelnut latte in one of those classy white mugs at this little café while waiting in the Lima airport. I ordered in Spanish, which I am getting better with cuz earlier in the day I almost said buenos aires to this stewardess instead of buenos tardes, which to all y’all non Spanish peeps means good afternoon, buenos aires is the capital of Brazil I think.

Truth is I’m jacked happy about this experience I love how peeps drive down here, kinda like me no turning sigs, never look twice, just go n’ get it if the lanes open love it. I do miss my ma, sis (today is her 20^th b-day love u kara), jim, n’ my gram + pap, as well as the many special people in my life (y’all know who u are, please believe). I want this experience to help me grow not only to become a better clinician, but more importantly become a stronger man of God, taking steps in my faith in order to reach out to others and become a part of something that is bigger than yourself. Serving others is what this life is all about, without kindness, compassion, love, and a truly generous heart we can’t live this life for all it’s worth. Everyday is a gift never forget it. Please keep us all in your thoughts and prayers, this is a team effort with God anything is possible, let’s expect miracles y’all! Um let’s get it, b breezy!

In Faith,

Christopher Brown J  

Meanwhile at the guest house, while Missy and Chris were making their way here we hung out after our pancakes and worked on getting the blog updated. Then we had a laundry party and a quick lunch of yummy tuna and egg salad sandwiches.  We spent the first part of the afternoon at the clinic preparing and loading wheel chairs into a van. We had so many we had to tie them to the top.  Afterwards we walked to the center of the city (Plaza de Armas) and visited several shops and local vendors.  The plaza is beautiful with a cathedral and cute little restaurants on the balconies of the buildings.  One of the PTs went with us and gave us a little tour of the plaza showing us all the best places to go.  Since she could speak Spanish she did well to bargin with some of the vendors for us to get the best deals.  It was a great taste of the culture.  To get home, we again had to squeeze into a cab and Becca, Courtney, Nora and I found ourselves very cozy in the back of the taxi seen in the picture. This was much small than the one we were sandwich into in Lima.  If you know anything about Peru roads, there are “occasional” speed bumps to slow the traffic.  As you can see this car is very low to the ground, so with 4 girls in the back we scraped and prayed that we would make it over the speed bump. This caused us to begin singing “low rider” which gave our taxi driver something to chuckle about even if he did not know what we were saying.  Something interesting we learned today is that each municipality garbage truck has a different classical tune it plays so that the people know that the garbage truck is coming and they need to put their trash out. We got to witness this as we heard “Fur Elise” coming down the road and locals running to put their trash out on the road. We ended our evening with an amazing dinner, team meeting with our fellow PTs, and sharing experiences and laughs with our fellow classmates.  What another great day! Now it’s time for Missy and Chris to get some real sleep.  More to come!

Mary