- Amanda McKinney
Peru - July 19-20, 2013
We flew back to Lima the morning of the 19th and then fended for ourselves till we left Saturday afternoon. Our flight had no delays going back to Lima and we were all quite relieved. Our host and some other individuals advocating for Deaf Education in Peru had gone to Brazil for a Conference, but we were still able to use his home and Dahlia’s mom was there waiting for us and stayed at the house with us until we left Saturday. It was nice to have that time to relax a bit, do some last minute shopping, reflect on everything we had experienced, etc.
We went grocery shopping as well so we would have food for dinner and breakfast the next morning and I got firsthand experience of how different some of the foods are. We had decided we wanted some bananas with breakfast Saturday morning, so I went to go get some. I found the bananas section which displayed a variety of different bananas, picked out a nice yellow bunch, and then we finished our shopping and headed back to the house. The next morning as we were preparing the food for breakfast, someone asked if I was sure the bananas I got were actually bananas and not plantains. They definitely looked like regular Dole bananas and not any plantains I knew of, but just to be safe I decided to peel one. As I started to peel it, I realized very quickly that they were either some really different kind of bananas or some kind of plantain that I didn’t know about. The peel was very stringy and was much tougher to peel than regular bananas. To confirm one way or another, I went ahead and ate a piece of it to test it and it was indeed a type of plantain. So, with a quick change of plans, I peeled and sliced all of the plantains and fried them up instead. Not everyone had tasted plantains before, so they got to try them and everyone seemed to like them. The defining moment was when Dahlia’s mom tried them to see if they passed her taste-test, and she liked them, so they must have been ok. Lol! :)
Overall, the trip was AMAZING! I learned and experienced soo much! I wanted to stay so badly because I now knew for sure that God was calling me to Peru, but I also knew that He needed to orchestrate my future plans for where He wants me to go in Peru and what He wants me to do once I get there. But I know He is faithful and will guide my every step!