Peruvian (Summer) SST Is Under Way

After an extended day of travel, nine students arrived in Lima shortly after midnight, having traded fierce cold in Goshen for a very different season.

The trip began around 3 a.m. on Wednesday with a ride to Chicago (the temperature in Goshen at the time was around 10 degrees). The connecting flight in Newark was delayed. They landed at the Jorge Chávez International Airport in Lima at 12:30  a.m., about two hours behind their scheduled arrival (but about 60 degrees ahead in terms of temperature).

The students moved through customs and immigration in less than an hour and were greeted by SST co-leaders, Duane and Karen Stoltzfus, and Celia Vasquez, the Lima study coordinator.

They boarded a bus for the final leg of the trip, a 30-minute ride to Albergue Miraflores House, the hostel where they will spend the first two nights. Before the bus pulled out, the group joined in prayer, first in English, then in Spanish.

The SST leaders collected passports, visas and other documents for safekeeping and then passed out emergency contact cards, bottled water, granola snacks and Sublime chocolate bars.

Thursday will be devoted to orientation and Friday to exploring downtown Lima. Traffic should be a little lighter than normal on the roadways as January and February usher in summer vacation, with schools across Lima closed.