reporting on the beach retreat and giving thanks for community

So it's a little late, but I promised to make an update on our YAV beach retreat to Mancora, so I guess I'll do that now, and tell the story of my adventures in Brazil later.

For a week, our group of 7 (6 yavs plus 1 site coordinator) stayed in one of the "Twin Towers," a pair of two large, multi-story beach-front houses located 20 minutes (by motorcycle taxi) down a hilly, bumpy dirt road in a small town called Los Organos. Los Organos is about 8 KM south of Mancora Beach, which is perhaps Peru's second most famous tourist destination, after Machu Picchu. Our house was huge, and the stretch of beach in front of it was almost totally deserted except for us and a couple other small vacation groups/families. The two houses share a small, private outdoor swimming pool, which we also took advantage of when the 30 meter walk to the beach just seemed too far. For a week, we definitely enjoyed a much, much higher standard of living than we have at our site placements.

Though we spent most of our week just relaxing at the beach, there were some very intentional structural aspects to the retreat. Each morning, all six YAVs each took turns leading a time of devotion or reflection. Debbie then led a bible study each evening. The house had a full kitchen, so we made several trips to the local market and cooked our own meals every day. We all pitched in to prepare breakfast and lunch, while for dinner we were divided into pairs to take turns setting up, cooking, and cleaning. It was great to spend a week relaxing and functioning like a family.

The actual beach was amazing. It was very clean (compared with most beaches in Peru, especially those in Lima) and refreshingly undeveloped - no restaurants, piers, boardwalks, tacky shops etc. And it had great (huge!) waves for body surfing. We also enjoyed hanging out at the pool, throwing around the frisbee, and watching some gorgeous sunsets. The last night we built a campfire on the beach, roasted marshmallows, and sang along to Sean's guitar playing. Other nights we played some intense card games and went for (dark!) walks along the surf.

The other objective of our retreat was to renew our visas. We received visas good for 183 days (six months) upon entering Peru. The 183rd day fell on the third day of our retreat, so that day we made a 2 1/2 hour trip north of Mancora to cross the border into Ecuador. We stayed in Ecuador long enough to eat lunch and do some shopping before crossing back into Peru, receiving a new 183 visa that will keep us legal in Peru until we return to the States at the end of July. We had been told beforehand that the officials on the border might tell us that we had to stay in Ecuador for 24 hours to receive new Peruvian visas, but luckily we didn't have any problems.

The other cool thing I did on the retreat was go surfing. One day Leslie and I went into Mancora to take surf lessons. I was pretty skeptical that I would successfully be able to stand up on a surf board after only an hour long class, but I did it. (I didn't know how much they would "help" me with the lesson though!) First our instructors had us practice our paddling positions and standing-up techniques on imaginary surf boards drawn in the sand. After about 10 minutes of that, we each got HUGE surf boards to go do it for real. The giant surfboards are much, much more stable, which is why they give them to beginners. They're also much, much harder to paddle out with! Luckily, I didn't have to do much of the work. My instructor held on to the back of the surf board while we paddled out, and while I paddled with my hands he was wearing flippers and kicking to get me into position to ride the waves. So really, my ability to surf was more dependent on my ability to follow directions. He would say paddle, and I would just keep paddling, not even looking back at the waves for which we was positioning. Then, he would suddenly say "stand up!" and I would get up us quickly as I could (which was still really slowly) to ride the wave, while he meanwhile let go. It was kind of like learning to ride a bike for the first time with training wheels - all the sudden you realize your dad isn't holding on any more. It took a couple tries, but I was eventually able to successfully stand up 3 or 4 times, and even rode one wave all the way in.

All in all, it was amazing. Our group did some incredible bonding over the week, I think. Looking back on the retreat now that it's 2 weeks old, I have become incredibly thankful for the community I have here. Not only are the 6 YAVs and Debbie a community, but I also feel very welcomed, comfortable and "a part of" my local communities here in comas: the host family, kilometer 13 church and santa isabel church. They all told me how much they missed me while I was gone, and everyone was so interested to hear about my experiences when I got back.

Yep that's about it. Moral of the story: God's awesome, communities rock, and beaches are fun.