Priceless Girls

Yesterday I left Lima to go to Arequipa (with 2 thousand cupcake liners in my backpack). I was afraid I would miss my flight, but thankfully everything worked well. I had in my bag a chicken filet sandwich my mom made for me, with spinach and mustard. I got to the gate and I bought blueberry Powerade. “It’s 6 soles” (I hand out a 50 soles bill) “Do you have a smaller bill? Would you like to buy something else along with your drink?” “No” (while in my head I was yelling at him: Have you completely lost your mind? You charge me 6 soles when I could pay 2 outside and you want me to buy more…no way dude. Plus…that’s my only bill hehe) “Hmm, no, thank you.”

The plane was not full at all and my window seat on row 13 was surrounded by British English. The gentleman two seats from me heard me speak in English on the phone and said I had a wonderful accent. He lives in Mollendo (look it up, near Arequipa). He said I am too young to have altitude sickness (oops! I didn’t kno that one!). His 5 year old grandson sat next to me in the middle of the flight with his huge blue eyes and 3 thousand freckles nose and all invading the magazine I was reading. I fell in love (but I was so nervous I didn’t say anything).

Nice and smooth landing to Arequipa. Leslie and Katie were waiting for me and I was more than happy to give them the two thousand cupcake liners I had bought in Lima’s Central Market (they are not available in Arequipa).

Today I turned 28 years old. I got up early morning; walking dead looking to be able to attend to Torre Fuerte’s Church and celebrated Resurrection Sunday at 7:30am. Beautiful Beautiful Beautiful service. Then we were off to Miguel Grau district area to visit another church and celebrate a pastor’s installation (is that how you say it?) and the service was 3.5 hours long. The worship songs in saya music always get me excited. I fell asleep only once while standing and thankfully Katie was standing next to me to not let me fall. My phone received calls from Lima and Pucallpa but I could not answer because we were in the middle of the service (for quite a while) and there were to great Andes representative ladies sitting at the end of the bench. Even me and my bodyless self would not have made it through.

We went up to the 3^rd floor and sat to have soup and Carcancho*. My cellphone rang only a couple times but I had my hands deep on my lamb. After all the ceremony with special guests we were sitting, eating with our hands. Awesome! I was the happiest girl on earth and I thank God for giving me this for my birthday (and for my table mates not staring at me for not eating the chuño on my soup and my potato didn’t have a worm and because I managed to tear the skin off my lamb to not have to eat all the hairs…only a few). Yum. I was a stranger in this feast. Thank you for feeding this odd and whitish alien.

We arrived home to relax a little, drink coffee and while the conversation jumped from one subject to another, it always went back to the one thing we cared the most: The Hogar.

We talked about many different things and Leslie was taking notes. It was good. We finished squeezing our hearts and brains coming to the same conclusion we always get: We love the girls, the moms, the pastors and their opinion is too important to keep this conversation without them. A movie? “Despicable Me”. I struggled to not fall asleep and to not cry when I saw the girls…(1st time watching this movie)…I want that too. I remembered that today my first gift was walking to church reluctantly and Mayra came to hug me through the entire worship time. A smiling girl’s hug is priceless.

Movie was over and my phone rang: It was my daddy. A call I had been waiting all day. I ran to the bedroom to not be loud and annoying and we talked for 8 minutes. Undeniable tears ran down my face and I hanged up unwillingly. Is the call really over?
Conclusion: Every girl needs her Daddy.

* "Cancacho is roasted lamb. Its translation comes from quechua. Smells good and tastes even better. Behind this dish there is a little unknown secret even to connoisseur tourists: after marinating it in panca pepper, garlic, cumin, pepper and dark beer, it is cooked inside an oven heated up by the flames produced by cattle’s manure. Let’s say that everything about the little lamb is used for its preparation.” - Cancacho, uno de los platos más sabrosos y poco conocidos del Perú (article available in Spanish)