Below is a series of emails from the group that traveled to Peru to build new relationships:
5/20/13
From: Dan Cammack
Hello, everybody! And greetings from the port of Ilo, Peru!
We are rapidly nearing the end of our time here in Peru. We are all safe and healthy, including Dannica. This afternoon we head a couple hours north along the Pacific coast to the little town of Mejia where Friends missionaries used to take their vacations. We will spend a couple of days debriefing the trip and getting rested up for the return to the United States.
The home stays in Tacna went very well. None of them were cut short this time by health challenges. We also had a couple of days to hang out with some of the youth and adults from our Tacna Friends churches and had a very good time with them.
Will try to update you one more time before boarding the plane on Thursday. In the meantime please know that we are well and not so sure we want to leave Peru just yet!
All for now,
Dan
5/19/13
From: Dannica
Subject: Solid!
Thank you everyone so much for all your prayers! Prayer has definitely been an important and powerful part of this trip, especially all of yours from back home 🙂 Im feeling absolutely fine now and am back to fully enjoying this experience that you all helped make possible 🙂 it’s going to be so hard to leave 🙁 I’m getting more and more attached everyday. God has shown me and shaped me so much through this trip with little ways and insights, but I’m still trying to piece all those together to find what his bigger message is for me through all of it. As with any mission experience, it makes you thankful for what you have at home, but I’ve also come to value and discover worth in the differences of another culture. Seeing the authenticity of the faith of the believers here has been very inspiring and reassuring, as well as their generosity and hospitality they’ve shown us. It’s been awesome to experience god even through broken conversations and being able to connect over my own passions as well as through his healing and timing and the gifts each of us use to support each other on this team. Thank you again for all your support back home! 🙂
Okay I love you daddy and jenni! Thank you for everything:) 🙂
-D xoxoxo
5/18/13:
From Dannica:
I am forwarding some pics that the girl, Jhoana, that we are staying with took of us in the plaza of Tacna last night (Click any image to make it larger):
From: Dan Cammack
This is just to let you know that we made it safe and sound to the city of Tacna yesterday. None of us got motion sickness even though the road is very curvy in places. We are noticing the difference in altitude and enjoying more oxygen!
The main agenda for today is taking a tour of Tacna. Some of our brothers and sisters in Christ will show us the town. Should be a fun day. Home stays here in Tacna start tomorrow (Thursday) afternoon.
The one team member who has been having some persistent health challenges is Dannica. It’s her stomach and other symptoms that appear when the stomach is not happy. Please pray for Dannica as this has been discouraging to her. Also pray for the rest of the team, Rebekah, and me as we continue to help her look for a solution. It should help that we are now close to sea level.
Thank you for keeping us in your prayers. Yesterday was the half way mark of our time in Peru. The rest of it will probably go pretty fast!
All for now,
Dan
5/13/13:
From: Dan Cammack
Greetings once again from Puno, Peru! We are back in the city and getting ready to travel to the city of Tacna tomorrow.
Thank you for praying for our home stay experiences. Most of them were cut short by one night because of some health challenges that we experienced, but what time was spent in these homes was really good. I’m hearing all kinds of stories from our team members, good memories that we will carry with us for a long, long time. So, even though not everything went according to plan there were many positive things about the experience. We also learned a lot that we can apply to future trips of this kind.
Today is our last full day in the high altitude. I asked the team this morning if anyone was sad about that. Several said that it did kind of make them sad. This has probably been the toughest part of our trip, but I won’t be surprised if it’s the part that sticks with us the longest.
Everybody is in pretty good health today. When we get to Tacna we will be close to sea level, so I’m anticipating that there will be fewer health challenges when we get there.
I am really enjoying this team. We have shared many good moments together so far and the chemistry of the group is good.
You’ll probably be hearing more details about the experiences we have been having through the team members. This message is just to let you know that we are alive and well plus some general impressions of my own.
All for now,
Dan
5/9/13:
From: Dan Cammack
Safe and sound in Arequipa, Peru
I’m glad to report that the team is doing well. We seem to be adjusting to the high altitude here in Puno. Yesterday we were able to visit the floating islands called “Los Uros” which are located in Lake Titicaca. That was a lot of fun!
Today we are heading to Ilave where the headquarters of Peru Yearly Meeting is located. We will be finalizing plans for the home stays this afternoon. The home stays start tomorrow (Friday) and end on Sunday. We are excited about this upcoming experience as well as a little nervous. You know…the fear of the unknown. But I have great confidence that the home stays will turn out well. Our hosts here in Peru are very good hosts.
We are doing these home stays in pairs. Here are the pairs for this first round of home stays: Joy and Lauren, Mareesa and Dannica, Rebekah and Sarah, and Russell and myself. As the Lord brings us to your mind please pray for us. Thank you!
I will likely not have access to e-mail until Monday of next week. Will give you an update then.
All for now,
Dan
5/8/2013 From Dannica
Hey guys 🙂
I just want to thank them all sooo much for helping me get here because this has been the most wonderful experience ever and I’m still in awe that I even get to be
apart of it 🙂 Peru is phenomenal!
Yeah there’s these really cute little handmade keychains all over the place I thought I would get for what you and I talked about, Jenni. Were in Puno now and the altitude is 12,600 ft. It definitely takes a toll on you. Along with motion sickness, the altitude hit mareesa hard yesterday on the bus ride here. She seems all better today though which we are sooo thankful for. Sarah had a difficult time with head pressure from the altitude as well, but she was fine by the end of the bus ride. The rest of us seem to be taking it fine so far, which I’m grateful for. Breathing is just more difficult. Simple tasks like climbing the stairs or getting dressed in the morning puts you out of breath.
Starting back in Arequipa, many of us noticed random tingling sensations in our hands and feet and we though it was a weird side effect of the altitude sickness medication, but now even those not taking the meds are noticing the sensations sometimes so we wonder if it’s just the altitude in general that is causing it. The tingling drives me nuts. I wake up every night with intense almost unbearable tingling in my heals and there’s no way to stop it. You just have to let it pass. My lips were even tingling this morning. We’re still having lots of fun though:) Dan and Rebekah keep surprising us with the coolest activities. I tried alpaca meet for the first time last night! And had more today for lunch. It’s really good. Tastes a lot like deer meat. Tomorrow we travel to Ilave, though we stay at the same altitude and we’ll be at this altitude for about a week total. Friday we start our first homestay 🙂 which will really put my Spanish to the test lol. Thanks for loving on daisy for me 🙂 give champy loves for me too:)
D
5/7/13:
From Dan Cammack:
Some of you may have heard already through Facebook and other means that we made it safe to our second stop on this trip: Puno, Peru. We are now at 12,600 feet above sea level, and we are all feeling the effects of the altitude to one degree or another. Hopefully we will feel much better in the morning!
We will be in this area for a week visiting churches, participating in various events and doing two nights of home stays. We will be divided up into pairs for the latter. Tomorrow (Wednesday) we will do some sightseeing around Lake Titicaca and take it slow while we are still getting used to the altitude.
Thank you for praying for us. We have felt the Lord’s blessing on us many times already!
Dan Cammack
5/5/13:
From: Dannica
Hey guys! I know dan already sent a group email to let everyone know we got here safely but i wanted to send my own when we got the chance again:) all our flights went extremely smoothly. Our long flight was only 8 hours and twenty minutes instead of 9-11 like I was expecting so that was nice. We got in around 5 our time but 3 Your time :/ we’re all extremely exhausted but our hotel is the coolest place ever! It was a catholic bishops home and was built over at least a hundred years ago. The brick is made out of volcanic rock and getting to the rooms is a maze thru little enclosed courtyards without ceilings that our rooms open into. Everything is beautiful and rustic and better than any fancy hotel you could stay in, I think anyways:)
Thanks for everything guys 🙂
5/5/13:
Dear friends and family,
Just wanted to let you know that we made it without incident to Arequipa, Peru, the first stop on our two-and-a-half week visit. We are glad to be here and have enjoyed our first restaurant meal already. In about an hour we will go to La Union Friends Church and spend the evening there. We are eager to get started on the relationship building!
Thank you for praying for us. Keep it up!
Dan Cammack
Rebekah Cammack