As crazy as it may seem, Beth & I are finally safe and sound in Colorado. There were some hectic times on the way home including delayed flights (I didn’t actually meet Beth in Miami as originally planned ) and an unplanned 2 day stay in Goshen due to car repairs (it runs like a champ now) but in the end we finally got here! We’ve been keeping busy shopping, unpacking, adjusting to life back in the States, telling SST stories and planning for a wedding! Yup, that’s right, our wedding is less than a year away now!! As far as closure to SST goes, well, I’m still working on it. Even though I wouldn’t trade being here with Beth and my family there are times when I still really miss Peru and all the wonderful friends I made there. I mean, email and facebook are ok for keeping in touch, but it really just isn’t the same. Regardless, I am having a great time re-telling so many of my wonderful SST memories to anyone who will listen. Tomorrow I’m even going to give a shot at cooking a Peruvian meal so wish me luck. The pressure is on too because Beth already cooked a great Dominican dish for us tonight! YAY for getting stories and experiences from all over the globe when I get home. Ok, I’ve really gotta get some sleep, but thanks for all your thoughts prayers over the past months. Oh yeah, and the comments were nice too Later!

Well, like Beth I’m done with service and back with the group for final retreat. It’s real fun to see everyone again tho I miss the Caraz mountains already. Hey, Miami is only 3 days away!!! Ok, I’ve gotta run, we’re off to final retreat. Goodbye Perú, it’s been a great time!

Hola i’m back in Santo Domingo and I have to say that I am pretty sad tpo be leaving my Campo. I got pretty attached after being there for so long. I am really going to miss my amazing family and the chilled relaxed campo feeling. BUT i was SOOOOO excited to get back to the capital and see that my friend Sonia (a good friend from my first 6 weeks) was at my house here! That was an amazing suprise!! And i have to say that i HAVE had an AMAZING time in this country and I am getting really sad at the idea of leaving. This is a beautiful and rich culture that is so lively and i have become really attached. It is amazing to be able to have the opportunity to live in tropical paradise for 3 months and i’m not going to complain about eating fresh fruit and meeting amazing people :-D. I have had ups and downs through this all, but i wouldn’t have traded any of this for anything!! I am so excited to get back and tell stories and show pictures! I will be in the capital until Tuesday morning and then i have a spanish test, and final retreat until we get on a plane for Miami (ultimatly Chicago, but you all know what i’m really excited about!) on Thursday. I just really thank God for this amazing life changing experiance it has been something I will always carry with me. So with that I will sign off from the Dominican Republic! Dios se bendiga Uds! :-D

It’s hard to imagine but my time here in Perú is quickly coming to a close. This last week-and-a-little looks like it’s going to be pretty jam packed but I wanted to at least write a quick post. So seeing as it’s been so long since my last post I decided to compile a list of things I’ve done the past little while on service that I never really saw coming, but still enjoyed throughly.

1. Ride in the back of a truck through Cañon del Pato at 7am. (The view was amazing!)
2. Build a relational database and write about 7,000 lines of VB code.
3. Actually enjoy reggeatón a fair bit.
4. Grow a beard.
5. Get to hang out with 5 other SSTers almost every weekend.
6. See someone get head butted in the world cup final.
7. Actually use almost all of the extra money I withdrew before service. Yeah, Caraz is known for it’s sweets
8. Have fun dancing.
9. Watch & get addicted to an American TV series (my family here loves it).
10. Get so attached to Perú! I’ve Gotta get back here some day

So there’s the short list. I’m real excited to get back to, well, first to see Beth again, but then to show everyone all of my photos and tell tons of stories and all that fun stuff! I’ll be back in the States in a mere 9 days, crazy! Alright, gotta go, but catch you all later.

Thank you everyone for keeping me in your prayers i am feeling a ton better after i found out that i had been drinking water from the canal that my family kept in the fridg. So who knows what kind of nasty i have been drinking. But i got some pills and feel a lot better now. This week has gone pretty quickly, and we have had electricity almost every night this week! So YAY! We also started teaching english to the youth after or full days at camp so our days are pretty jam packed!! Oh and i have to tell the story that yesterday we went down to the Canal to take some pictures and we found a HUGE DEAD HORSE floating in the canal, pretty much the most disgusting thing i have ever seen in my whole life, some men pulled the horse out by its tail and legs and it layed on the ground, so gross. But that was the excitment that we got this weekend! Anyway i hope you are all doing well! Its only 19 days left in the country, keep us in mind as we wrap things up here!Also check out the pictures of Las Zanjas on the Goshen SST page, you can see my awesome tan!! Love to all!