First day in Peru.
Thursday, January 12
After sleeping in from their late night arrival, Doug picked up the students for a 15-minute walk to Casa Goshen, the SST house where Maria and Doug live and have their office. After some introductions and a reflection on SST as a pilgrimage, we took a 20-minute walk along a nearby cliff-top park that overlooks the ocean. Students got to try a picnic lunch with causa, a popular Peruvian dish made from a Peruvian staple, potatoes. While in Peru, everyone wanted to touch the Pacific Ocean (something that Goshen doesn’t have much of), so we walked down a long series of stairs to the waterfront, where the students also enjoyed some ice cream.
It was a hazy, misty day (unusual for this time of year), but students began to wonder about some contradictions (that they will later learn answers to): How can it be so humid and misty here, but it essentially never rains in Lima? How can we be so near the equator, but the temperature right now, in the middle of the day, is only in the 70s?
After walking back to Casa Goshen we spent the rest of the afternoon in orientation activities, a couple quizzes, and individual Spanish placement exams, before walking to a nearby restaurant for rotisserie chicken and salads.
