Peruvian SST Begins With Chocolate, Crackers and a Prayer

After an extended day of travel, 19 students arrived in Lima shortly after midnight, having traded spring in Goshen for fall in Lima.

The trip began around 7 a.m. on Wednesday with a ride to Chicago and a short domestic flight to Atlanta. After a six-hour international flight, the students landed at the Jorge Chávez International Airport in Lima at 12:02  a.m.

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 Vásquez, the Lima study coordinator.

They boarded a bus for the final leg of the trip, a 30-minute ride to Albergue Miraflores House, a hostel where the women will spend the first two nights, and Cirque Hostel, for the men. 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, assorted crackers 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 Friday, which is a national holiday, el Día de Trabajo, or labor day. Students will meet their host families on Friday night.