Pre-trip/Cleveland-eleven months:complex excursion

Today…today is the start of my new adventure. It’s the first day of approximately 334 days of my latest traveling experience, though it’s a little more complex than my past excursions. Eleven months spent living on the coast of Lima, studying in the Andes Mountains, and ministering in the Amazon jungle. Let’s not get dramatic though. It’s not like I’ll be gone for a whole year. Merely eleven months spent in Peru. I’m anxious. I’m nervous. I’m excited and eager. I’ve been on trips out of the country before, but never for more than two weeks at the most, and certainly not by myself. I’m currently on a flight from Denver to Cleveland. I’ll spend three days in Ohio getting to know my new teammates and sitting through orientation for the ARRIBA program. On Thursday the 24^th of May, I’ll head off with seven strangers to Lima, Peru. The blonde little girl with the crown of curls, the one too shy to ask for ketchup at McDonalds, is traveling 3,564 miles away from home, diving into a new culture, and living with a Peruvian family, one with whom she cannot yet communicate. What is she thinking?...