Peru Trip 2015 | Tacna: Part One

In honor of my sister finally traveling back to the states in 10 days [!!!] I decided to do a fun series on my trip to Peru.  My family and I had the wonderful opportunity to travel to South America for about 2 weeks at the end of last year. I spoke a little about my time there over Christmas here in this post.

Before I go into all the ins and ours of our trip, you may be wondering; why in the world is your sister in Peru in the first place? I actually get that a lot.  Me a blonde haired blue eyed Counselor in Charlotte who took French in high school because I didn't want to be like everyone else - has a sister who could actually pass as a Peruvian native and is [thankfully] fluent in Spanish.

My sissy has been living in Tacna, Peru for a little over two years now working for the Jesuit Volunteer Corps.  She teaches at a school there as well as serves in the community.  The volunteers all live in community, there are 4 girls in the house where she lives, and then each volunteer has a host family.  The host families are their fill in families while they live in the country.  My sister lived with hers for the first month she was there to get acclimated to the country, as well as having weekly  dinners over there, using their wifi, and doing life with that family.

Can I just say I am incredibly proud of my sister for truly being brave and surrendering to God and dedicating her life, or rather the past two years, to service abroad.  While I try to leave each and every day by those ideals and love to travel, I am definitely a homebody. I love being close enough to just show up at my parents house for a meal and conversation.  Everyone serves in their own way.

Because the volunteers are so intertwined with their community that they serve the first half of our trip was spent in Tacna.  We got to explore, visit with families, really get to know the people Em has spent her life with, and best of all eat home cooked meals.

The first days there we were jet lagged and culture shocked.  I didn't really know what to expect from just hearing stories over face time with my sissy.  Tacna is a completely different climate than I am used to - it was summer there for one and two this area is a huge desert!  We got to see my sisters house.  She toured us around her neighborhood, took us to her church and the school she works at.  We checked into our hotel and walked around the city some more. Ending our first day with a lovely meal cooked by Emily's host mom.

Check back soon for more installments in the Peru series!