¡Terremotos!
(Earthquakes!)
Yes, we felt
both earthquakes and yes…they were scary! But thankfully we didn’t experience
any damage here. We’ve actually felt a number of earthquakes since arriving,
but most of them are very small tremblings (like a really big truck is rumbling
by). The one early this morning definitely lasted the longest and was the
“loudest.” I didn’t feel as much shaking as the previous ones (although Lane’s
perspective was that there was a good amount of shaking), but it was loud…it woke
everyone up. All the dogs around here started barking and we could hear people
panicking (our walls are literally “paper thin”). When I felt it start, I woke Lane
up saying “Lane, there’s an earthquake! Then I jumped up and started pacing, wondering
where was the safest place to be! We don’t have any good sturdy furniture to climb
under or a good “triangle of life” place for us to go to. I kept waiting for the
real shaking to start, and when it didn’t, I wondered if the mountain behind us
was cracking up and a big landslide would hit us or something!
In other news,
we had a very nice Thanksgiving with some of the other Americans here in Lima –
some are here as mission presidents, MTC president, embassy employees, or Area
office employees/volunteers. Of course we missed being with family, but thank
heavens for technology that allows us to stay in touch!
After listening
to Michael Dunn’s talk about “the aggregation of marginal gains” (getting 1%
better) early in the week (click here
for the full talk), I decided to work on a habit I need to improve upon. I was particularly
inspired by this passage:
“ … acclaimed
author James Clear says this strategy puts the math squarely in our favor. He
maintains that ‘habits are the ‘compound interest of self-improvement.’ If you
can get just one percent better at something each day, by the end of a year …
you will be 37 times better.’”
So I calculated
the small improvement I would need to make each day and excitedly moved forward.
And as I sit here writing this, I realize that I was successful for precisely 1
day. Sigh. Tomorrow is a new day and a new week and I get to start afresh!
¡Ten algunas experiencias buenas esta semana! (Have some good experiences this week!)
Love,
Lane & LeAnn
PS - The best
news of the week: we are expecting a new grandbaby next May/June…thanks to
Taylia and Izzy! (And yes, we got permission to share their good news here!)
President Packard serving up second helpings of taco salad after the leadership council meeting.
Missionaries eating lunch after the leadership council.
On Wednesday we went to the nearby mall after our day in the mission office to buy some supplies for missionary houses...and found this beautiful holiday display.
And this just made me laugh because it feels so wrong! Swimsuit displays in November! I forget that we're entering the summer season (although the weather really hasn't warmed up at all since we've been here). We went to this department store in search of "cocinas" (two-burner electric cooktops) that we heard they sold here. But alas...no luck.
At the mission office on Thanksgiving morning "to get stuff done."
People asked us what we ate for Thanksgiving dinner in Peru. Well...here it is. We ate delicious traditional Thanksgiving food.
Delicious rolls made by Lane's sister, Corinne Packard, the mission president's wife.
More food...
And more food...
Notice the Inca Cola on the table...people love that here. We're not fans...sort of tastes like bubble gum to me.
This was probably the most unique food here...fresh mangoes. Neither of us really love mangoes, but they looked fancy!
In all the years we've been married, we've always done A LOT of cooking/baking on Thanksgiving. So this was a strange year for us. Since we don't have a working oven, we contributed all the paper and plastic products to the feast.
Here we are getting ready to load up our plates.
President and Sister Packard
The entire group.
As a side note...it was great being at an actual house with an actual yard. I didn't get a good picture, but this was the first house (not apartment) that we've been in since arriving in Peru.
On Saturday, we went to another mall to look for the elusive cocina (again, sadly, no luck) and to do our grocery shopping (the malls here often have bigger chain grocery stores). We were surprised to see this store, which used to be our favorite shoe store in the states before they all closed.
And finally, a picture of our "good, sturdy furniture." This clothes hamper serves as our kitchen table, desk, and entertainment center. It is more stable than it looks as its full of heavy dishes. Notice the clear bins in the background. We put pretty much everything in these types of bins (we have 9 in our kitchen area) to keep things away from bugs, dust, and mice. And yes, I saw another mouse run across our floor last night...boo!
