Don't do this at home....

I've wanted to post this since we had this experience a few weeks ago, but am just getting to it. Life in a third world country is different....you don't necessarily feel it every day, but this day was definetly one of them.

We were taking the overnight bus from Lima back to Arequipa a week and a half ago. The trip should be around 17 hours by bus....not too bad, especially when you have reclining fat seats you can sleep decently in. We were happily asleep on the bus and when we both woke up the bus was not moving. Come to find out, we were still about 5 hours out from Arequipa....and in all would be waiting along with other buses, semi-trucks, and other vehicles on this road for a total of 5 hours.

It had stormed through the night, dumping a lot of rain in this certain region where we were bumper to bumper in dead traffic. There was a landslide and flooding in this area, which caused the water of one river to rise up taking out a bridge we were supposed to cross.....traffic was backed up on both sides of the road for a long time. Most people got out to observe what was going on.

(The river we were supposed to cross)

 Waiting along with everyone else....

 We waited for a while, got out of the bus, stretched our legs, and did whatever we could to pass the time. After a while the water came down a little bit and everyone was directed across the river....as the title says....Don't do this at home....or anywhere else for that matter.....

Here are some of pictures of us being directed across the river. Its really not toooo safe. As far as we know there were no problems with all the buses and semis getting across....the weight I'm sure helped, but with water up to people's knees guiding us across, it was definetly NOT safe. We're grateful to have survived to write this blog, but we'd never do this on our own!!

We made it back safely to Arequipa about 5 hours late....in all 21 hours on a bus. Not the grandest of experiences, we were definetly happy to be back and have a wide open city to walk in! =)

SAM Peru Field Conference

Last week we were in Lima for the SAM Peru Field Conference. The weekend before the conference began, we spent some time with Becca's friends in Salamanca and went to church there on Sunday. It was good to see them again!

The conference was Monday-Friday March 5-9 at the Casino Club de la Policía (in this case, not a casino as we know it to be in English....but translates as well as a social club). They had decent accomodations, but as far as the grounds were concerned, we enjoyed the olympic sized swimming pool with 2 large slides. We both swam most mornings (How refreshing!) and enjoyed the slides and pool during free time in the afternoon.

It was great to be with our SAM friends again, being that we're still in Arequipa and away from them in Pucallpa. Here's a group shot on our last day.

Pastor Mark Upton from Hope Church in Charlotte, NC came and spoke to us. His teachings were great! Blake Strozynk led us in worship.

We had a great time with everyone and are eager to get to Pucallpa!

One night we took a night bus tour of Lima, including a stop at El Parque de la Reserva which currently the largest water fountain park in the world. Here's a website to see some of the fountains: Link

Here's some of our fun from the bus tour.....

We work with some fun people!!!! =)

Traffic jams are bad enough in Lima...but it doesn't help when a double-decker bus helps block traffic even more!!! Here's some of that insanity in the middle of an intersection....

The "new" couple on the field...Him representing the University of Florida....Her representing Children's Hospital. =)

We like to have fun! This one is walking through the tunnel of one of the fountains.

It was a great week! We're now back in Arequipa continuing with our Spanish refresher studies! Thank you so much for your prayers and support!!