I arrived in Lima on Sunday, August 29th. It took me an hour to find the man holding the whiteboard sign with "Julia Vanderham" carefully printed in capitals. We spent the ride through Lima discussing our respective names (first, middle, catholic, maternal and paternal), and Luis- Carlo kindly let me feel that my phrasebook Spanish was filling up a conversation.

My temporary Lima home is crowded with paintings and antique tack, and the backyard is filled with wild vegetation and a drained swimming pool. I spend a lot of time confusing the maid with my muddled Spanish and my awkward resistance to being served.

At work, I wear buttoned up shirts. I make excel spreadsheets, and read business plans. Our office helps small businesses get the financing and training they need to be successful, so sometimes I sit in on meetings with the entrepreneurs and by patching together the words and phrases I actually understand I can catch at least the gist of what goes on around me. Being in a business environment is more shocking than being in Peru. I never thought "equity" and "driving market forces" would be phrases I'd use in English, much less Spanish, but here I am, researching how to break into foreign markets.