Rain?!

It never rains here, just like in Chilca where we've been with Childreach. However, these last 3 days it has rained each night, all night. People's houses are flooding, including a couple rooms at the orphanage. When they build stuff here they never think about making it water proof. I have a picture of some city workers sweeping up water down below. I am praying that the rain stops because a lot of people who live around here don't have roofs. Also if the rain continues people's houses will litterally melt because they are made out of adobe.

Last night we took Gerson, Yhonson, and Joel out to eat some pizza at the only pizza place in town. It was amazing. I forgot my camera and so did my mother. Sorry. We got pretty wet getting there though even with taking a moto. I've got some more pictures below.

We'll be getting back Saturday in the morning. I'm not sure if I'm going to have time to post before now and then, so if not Thanks for taking this trip with us.

My dad with a big hardware store dog. He's huge, really.

Here is my mom doing flash cards, Mimi on the right and one of the twins on the left... I never can get their names

Man sweeping water through the streets

Nelson and his happy face

This is a shot of Jose eating popcorn...his hand is blurry because it's litterally moving that fast, maybe next time I'll put my camera on sport mode.

Pictures and update

The last couple of days have been pretty busy.

Friday was a big day. It started out with Ruben, Linche and their two sisters Jenifer and Ninilinita's parents showing up to take them back home. The kids had mixed emotions along with everyone else here. They were happy to go back to live with their parents but they were also sad to leave all their friends and comforts they had here. Before they left all the kids, house moms and I got in a circle and held hands and prayed for them, then they all hugged eachother goodbye. We loaded them up with clothes and soccer balls and then they left to go back to Trujillo.

After that I took the boys to the beach because the girls got to have a fingernail painting party earlier in the day with my mom. They reminded me that I still owe them dinner because I told them that if they could solve a puzzle we brought down then I'd take them. They figured it out pretty quick. So I told them not today but we'll go another time, because it was Norma's Quicenera tonight. They have a huge celebration for 15th birthdays for girls here just like they do in Mexico and many other latin american countries. There are a couple pictures below. Her Quincenera though was on her 16th birthday because she didn't get to have one on her 15th because she wasn't here. It lasted from 8 - 12 at night and was a great time.

Yesterday we gave the kids some stickers that were a present from Mrs. Sams preschool class. They loved them.

I'd write more, but I'd be late to the interview of the some of the teachers that I have to translate for. I'll catch up on some more later.

prison day and some other fun things

hola! I had some girls over
to paint nails and to have
coke, cookies and popcorn.
While they were waiting their turns for nails,
they were outside riding bikes.
As you can see in the cleaning picture, I have a new dress.
I found it in the clothes closet because I had to have a dress to wear to the prison.( More about that in a minute) Jordyn in the picture with kelly and the other one by himself is available for adoption. According to his bio he will be five this month. He seems younger. He is ADORABLE and chatters all the time. He loves the books I brought and has sat on my lap quite a few times to read. He has no siblings. Today when we came to pick up the girls we were taking for dinner he was outside and yells Kevine, Kevine! He wanted to hug Kevin and be picked up by him. I tried to hug him but that wouldn't do!

Thursday, I had the opportunity to visit the ladies prison. We had to wear dresses that's why I picked this new treasure out. I was told we would be searched but that didn't happen. It is harder to get through airport security than in that place. We had bagged up some individual packages of clothes for the women on Wednesday to take with us. We were escorted into the courtyard where a guard began calling the ladies in and blowing her whistle. They came in and lined up. They were all ages. I saw that some of them came in with their knitting needles so I thought, they must not be too dangerous to be able to bring those in! Also, the ladies with babies up to 3 keep their kids in prison with them so there were quite a few kids. A lady from the community talked to them about Jesus and then Avis prayed. I stood looking out at the group and noticed a blond fair skinned girl in her 20's. I noticed her face was hard and sceptical looking. I prayed that she would soften and hear the message. She came up for prayer later. I was able to get close to her when I was waling up and down the lines passing out toothpaste. I asked her where she was from. She spoke English. She said she was from the Ukraine. She was in Peru because of a boyfriend. His friends sold drugs so now they are all in . She told me the judge told her right before Christmas that is looks like she will be there 15 years. She said she had no family to help her. I don't know to what extent she was involved, but my heart went out to her. She said she didn't really understand about praying. I told her she could talk to God as a friend and just regular conversaion. She said bibles were available so I told her to try to read a little each day and start with Matthew. She said she had tried to read before but didn't understand. I told her to ask for understanding and that I asked for understaind too. At one point , the guard was telling her to go but she asked for a few minutes more to talk to me. I hugged her and told her that even if I never see her again, I would be praying for her. Her name is Alyena. It was very hard to walk out and leave her there. Another unexpected thing was that the women could sell what they had made. We bought some things. I bought 2 really cute hats for Bella and Sophie.
It was another WOW time in Peru. I can't count how many wow's there have been. Sorry this is so long. I will have to tell you all about Milagros and bikeriding another time.
Thanks for reading Lisa

Pictures of Bikes! (go to next post to read about)

Salesman Erwin supervising the loading of the bikes into his personal truck

3 of the 4 bikes we bought in the store
Some of the kids starting to learn

Ruben and his brother Linche checking the bikes out, they have never ridden one before

Ruben after riding around for about 5 mins, he could not stop smiling all day.

Bikes!

Yesterday and today has been all about bikes. My parents and I went and bought 4 bikes from a store in downtown Pacasmayo. 2 big ones and 2 medium sized ones. I feel like we got a fairly good deal because we got those 4 for $300 US dollars which is a little less than what we would have paid at wal-mart. Bikes are one thing that are pretty expensive here in Peru. The salesman was as nice as could be (he wanted us "rich" gringos to come back and buy more stuff from him). He insisted that he bring the bikes up to the orphanage in his own truck with cardboard packed between each one to ensure no stratches or dings. While he was there he also got a private tour of the school from me because he has 2 kids that he might want to send there.

Anyway, the kids LOVE the bikes. Yesterday 5 kids who had never even been on a bike learned to ride, and today many more got much better. Yesterday we brought all the kids old enought to ride them over at the same time (about 16) and today I brought them in 2 groups, girls before lunch and boys after. The bikes have to stay over in the school area right now because there is no room in the orphange to ride them.

Also yesterday, continuing our trend of taking about a different family group to dinner about every other night, we took out Ruben, Linche, and their sister Ninilinito (I'm not sure if I got that right... it's a pretty difficult one). They are the newest ones to the orphanage, they arrived about 1 week before Christmas when the police took them from their mother who was too drugged out to function. Currently their mother is in some sort of rehablitation center as far as I know. The kids were only supposed to be here until she got out, which was suppose to be last week. Who knows... anyway they are still pretty shy and we could really tell that they were very scared of walking around in the streets and of people in general. Ruben the oldest brother would grab his younger brother and sister by the hand and just walk so fast that we could hardly keep up. This is unlike the other kids who just stroll down the street very slowly no problem. This is why it was so good to see these same kids having fun and smiling while playing with the bikes. You can scroll up to see Ruben smiling with one of the bikes.

This morning Lisa and about 4 other ladies went to the womens' prison. She will blog about that another time and share the experience with you all. We also cooked dinner for missionary night tonight. Pasta and redsauce with thin pan fried chicken.

The good, the bad, and the ugly.

I'll give them to you in that order,

The good- We successfully ordered the desks. We went to 2 places and called another 1 before ordering. They have no idea what a typical american school desk looks like, so I had to pull a picture up on the internet for them. After a lot of discusison and price negotiation the first place wanted to sell us 100 desks for $5,000 dollars. We decided to look around, thats when we found the second place. We caught the owners just as they were leaving to lunch. We ended up getting the exact same desks as from the other place but for $4,000 dollars. Quite a significant price cut. She now has enough desks for each kid and a couple extra to grow. This was a great accomplishment because nothing ever gets settled in one day here in Peru. It might of helped that I was there to translate and haggle the vendors. haha.

The Bad - Avis wants to move the orphanage over to the other compound and the school over in where the current orphanage is. This is a great idea, and needs to be done, so that there is more room for more orphans. However, we found out that all the paper work and inspections and all that Jazz is gonna cost $4,000 aye aye aye. Right now the orphanage is at capacity with 39 kids. But if they moved it all over to the other building theres room for 90 right now, and much much more room for more kids in the future (after we build some more).

The ugly - Well, you saw my pictures the other day of the squid in the market that I said I ate... well I guess I got a little to confident in my Peruvian food eating skills, cause I have been emptying the contents of my stomach into toilets by various methods all last night and pretty much all today. I don't think you want any more information on that. Also, I had a war with a mouse that was living in my dresser this morning, in the midst of all my stomach problems. I called in Princessa (the rat killing cocker spanel) for the assist. Dad also helped, with the three of us we got it done.

I've noticed a lot of you posting comments asking for prayer requests, so here they go.

• That the government in Peru would be more willing to help their orphans
• That the institutions here would not charge ridiculous prices and make us jump through hoops to accomplish things for the betterment of the people
• That we come to the right decision for moving the school/orphanage
• That God will provide what the ministry needs
• Health - for my stomach, back(from lifting so many kids all day) and for everyone else here in Peru.

Well that's all I really can write at the moment, I'll try and get some more pictures up tomorrow. Thanks for all your prayers and support.

Update 1/4/2009

I have decided to put pictures in seperate post just to make formatting easier, scroll down to see the new ones.

Yesterday my father and I fixed toilets all day long. There are six toilets in the orphanage and they all needed tinkering with. After we got that started I left him to go pick up the 4 computers that we decided to buy.

Today we went to the beach with 19 kids after church. The psychologist is in town and went with us to watch the kids interact. We all had a really good time jumping waves in the very cold water. It became overcast around 4:00 so that is when we returned

Tomorrow we are going to Chiclayo to get the desks started. They all have to be made by hand so we need to find someone who can do it.

By the way, the weather is 75 degrees and sunny, with a cool breeze.

more pictures

I actually did have this for lunch. Not this actual squid, but something like it. Ruben, who is new, learning how to throw a football.

Pictures

Mimi who is available for adoption along with her sister A girl in the city who Lisa gave a ball to.
Dinner?

Fruit stand

Jumping rope with the kids

Pictures! and update

Today my parents are driving to Paijan, which is halfway to Trujillo, with Avis and Ashley to give away some medical equipment. People have brought a lot of medical equipment down over the last couple years for Avis that she has no idea how to use... like heart cathoders and IV's so we decided that while we are here we will load it all up in the van and drive it to a town that has a small hospital and lacks supplies. We also had a bunch of walkers that we have already disperesed around the town. I think everyone I've met has a 95 year old grandma, haha. After they drop off the medical equipment they are going to Trujillo to do some grocery shopping. While they were busy doing that I went with Maribel to another city to look at some computers that someone wants to sell to us. It is a very good deal. 4 computers, with 3 tables for 1200 dollars, so we have decided to buy them, seeing that the school needs them and so does the office.

I spent some time with the new kids yesterday and today. They are still a little shy but they are starting to warm up. One of the new boys Ruben got up and spoke during the open mic night at church and said that he was thankful that he was here because he has everything he needs here. Him and his brother arrived a week and a half ago. The officials said that they would only be here for a couple days while they were investigating thier mother. But I have a feeling they might be here for longer than that. Another new one named Heiser is a handful, he's 4 years old and won't stop laughing. It's so good to see kids coming from the situations that they do and just be able to be kids here. I tried to feed the new baby Maria today but she wouldn't let me, I don't know why, my niece Bella always eats great for me haha.

As of right now I'm just trying to write this post... I've already had to rewrite it about 3 times because I keep accedently writing in spanish because I can't concentrate to save my life right now. I have three kids behind me playing mario on my old gameboy that I brought down, so I keep turning around and talking to them turn around and start writing again and realize its in spanish. haha.

Here are a few pictures that I have taken over the past couple days.

Finally some pictures for you all.

First the great haircut of 2008

Before

After the haircutLisa and Kelly playing with 10 of the kids in the river New Year's day Buring the doll for the New Year
Lisa preparing the bags to give out around the town with some other ladies from the church

I will post some more pictures after I reformat some more.

Happy New Year

Last night and today was awesome.

For new years we participated in the Peruvian custom. People make dolls and stuff them with hay and burn them at 12:00. We had a church service that started at 9:00 and went until midnight. After the worship and a quick sermon we had an open mic. Anyone who wanted to could come up and talk. The subject was, "what were you thankful for last year." At this church when there's an open mic, everyone talks so it easily lasted until it was time to light the human size doll on fire. Overall it was a great New Year celebration and honestly the first one I can remember having in a Church. It's really great to see how great the Church community here is when they want to celebrate everything together.

New Year's day was excellent as well. I woke up at about 9:00 and my father and I switched some car batteries around so we could get the van running, then installed a shower curtain rod, towel rod, and clothes hanger rod in my room. Then at 1:00 I went over to the orphanage to make sure the kids were ready to go swim in the river, and got to eat my favorite peruvian dish for lunch, lomo saltado. At 2:00 16 kids from the orphanage, 10 from the church, and my parents and I went to swim in the river. It was a blast. All the kids had a lot of fun.

After that we had "Missionary Night" where all the gringos get together and eat dinner made by one of the other gringos every thursday. After that we played some Bible trivia. We did guys vs. girls... Avis pretty much just wiped the floor with us.

Ok once again the pictures aren't working, I think I figured out what's causing it. I will reformat the images tomorrow and try and post them. Happy new year!