14 de Septiembre (El Mago de Oz)

Today was an adventure in Lima! Around lunch time, we headed over to “Pizza Street” or what we would call “Little Italy.” It’s a small street near Kennedy Park in Miraflores that has several Italian restaurants. At “Meza Luna,” the restaurant we ate at, I had linguini with salsa con carne and Liz had pollo oriental. :) We also ordered dessert and each had a drink for less than $10! While we were there, we saw a man performing on two instruments at the same time! How nice! Check out the video below. . .

*sorry this is sideways. . . haha. :)

After that, we stopped at a bookstore right down the street and looked around for a bit. Then, we took the bus back to our apartment to get ready to go see El Mago de Oz!

We found out that The Wizard of Oz was being performed at ICPNA in downtown Lima, and we wanted to check it out. If you know me, you know I love this movie and even had the opportunity to see Wicked, (the Broadway prequel to the The Wizard of Oz) for my birthday this year. So, when I noticed a billboard at ICPNA for this showing, I had to go see it! We left Surco around 4:00 p.m. and took a wild taxi ride to el Centro de Lima. Traffic was terrible, but we were glad to finally make it there! We got out and the taxi driver told us to be careful! Luckily, Junior was nice enough to go with us even though it was a musical! :) It was really funny when we first got there because we were the only adults there who weren’t with children. I figured since the play was geared towards kids, it would be more on our Spanish comprehension level. Haha.

*El Camino Amarillo (Yellow-Brick Road)

The play finally began, and I loved hearing the familiar song of The Wizard of Oz in Spanish! El camino amarillo (the yellow brick road), etc. How wonderful! In this adaptation, Toto actually came to life in Oz and could speak! My favorite line of the play was said when Dorothy got her red shoes. At this time, she said something about how beautiful they were and Toto replied, yeah, but they don’t match your dress! Haha. . .cracked me up. Junior’s favorite line was when the witch came on to the stage and asked the audience who they thought she was. The kids, of course shouted, “La bruja!” To this the witch replied, “Well, I’m not Britney Spears!” It was just wonderful.

After that, we decided to check out a bit of downtown Lima including the Plaza de Armas. We saw the Palacio Gobierno (government palace) and the Catedral de Lima. Every city in Peru has a plaza of arms with the main cathedral inside. They were both so beautiful at night! As we were walking by another church, we could hear music inside, so we walked in. They had several alters where people were kneeling and doing the sign of the cross. Mass was going on, but the cathedral was so huge, that I managed to sneak a few pictures! It was truly beautiful. We want to go visit the catacombs next!

*Fountain en La Plaza de Armas en Lima:
We encountered some more funny “Lima” stuff while downtown. For instance, the first few days we were here, I noticed people on the streets waving calculators at us as we walked by. I couldn’t fathom there being a huge market for calculators, and as I told this to Liz, she informed me that they were exchanging money, not selling calculators. Haha. Oops. Last night we saw people on the sidewalk with scales. Luckily Junior was with us and told us that you actually pay them to use their scale and see how much you weigh! Mmk. . . Lol. Another thing we saw was people waving their cell phones at us. Junior again told us that you can actually them 50 centimos per minute and use their phones. . . I guess it’s like using a live pay phone. Haha. We also got asked if we wanted piercings or tattoos. We of course wondered if the package deal came complete with hepatitis and decided that we’d probably pass. :)

*El Catedral de Lima below:Wow. So, a day of learning and adventure in Peru!

OK. Now here’s the serious part of the post. . . :)

Last Sunday, the preacher spoke also of the parable of the servants. To the first servant, the master gave 5,000 gold coins, another 2,000 and another 1,000. The Bible says that the master gave to each according to his ability. When the master returned, he learned that the first two servants had invested the coins and doubled their money. The master was pleased and gave each more to manage. The third, however, had hidden the money in the ground and returned to his master exactly what had been entrusted to him. How foolish, the master told him! Had he even put it in a bank, he could’ve earned interest! He then ordered the third servant to give his money to the servant with 10 thousand.

I sometimes feel like that last servant . . . I hide away what God has given me instead of putting it to use for the purpose of God’s eternal harvest. How foolish we, oftentimes, can be by thinking that God would want back exactly what He has given us! We should use whatever small or great talents we have for His purpose, for His glory. It is not our job to question our circumstances but to always think how it is that God desires us to use them.

“For to every person who has something, even more will be given, and he will have more than enough; but the person who has nothing, even the little that he has will be taken away from him.” Matthew 25:29

“Porque al que tiene, se le dará más, y tendrá de sobra; pero al que no tiene, hasta lo poco que tiene se le quitará.” San Mateo 25:29

Katrina

new pictures!!