Politicking

Well the last couple of days have been much better and had a little bit of Peruvian adventure thown in as well.

Thursday night at 7:00 I had a meeting with one of the local businessmen. He's one of the head honchos here in Pacasmayo. He owns a chicken and food delivery service that makes deliveries in about a 100 mile radius. We got the meeting set up through one of the ladies who goes to our church, who is his secretary. His name was Ronal Enrique and he was all business. At first he seemed pretty cold but he warmed up quickly. He was asking a lot of questions like...why are you asking me for help, do the americans not want to give to you guys? I learned a lot in that meeting. I learned that the reputation of the ministry is not quite what I thought it was. Everyone in town thinks that the ministry is just full of absolutely rich Amercians and see's us as a way to sucker money from us. However from the past activity of Go Ye I can easily understand how that message got across. I learned that a couple years ago there was a container that Avis sent down here that was full of gifts and old computers which were dispersed among the comunity here. And while we know that they are donations from other people the people in the comunity don't make that link, so they believe we just go around and buy stuff and hand it out.

So anyway, I sat and just listened to everything he had to say, and let Maribel do most of the talking. Ronal soon lightend up and I realized that he did truely indeed want to help the kids, and always has wanted to help the kids. He was just scared that the money he gave might not go to the kids. This is because we also had another bad employee a couple of years ago that people got the impression that when she gathered stuff for the kids she was also gathering stuff for herself. Which I believe was probably true.

What came out of the meeting was this. They are going to start helping us little by little. First they are going to allow us to come on the bonus day of every month when each employee of their company recieves a big bonus of rice and milk and allow us to ask and collect the bonuses from employees who are willing to give up their bonus to the kids of the orphanage. Then he said after we build a better relationship with him and his company he will give more and more. However, he said one thing that he and his employees would like are...guess what...English lessons. They are quickly expanding and wanting to do international business and are very interested in learning English so he asked me to put together a plan describing how we could hold a couple classes a week teaching English to his employees. So Ronal set up a time to come and see the actual orphange himself on Monday at 12:00 during is lunch break. So please pray that goes well. Around 10:30 that night after the meeting I got a phone call. Ronal was sending one of his delivery crews to bring us some chickens that night. So get this...at 2:30 AM which is the time that his delivery crew runs they came by and dropped off 6 chickens. I should restate the fact that this was at 2:30 in the morning haha so I was a little tired the next day. When they showed up I opened the door and realized that they were delivering live chickens. So at first I was a little apprehensive. I told the man I didn't realize they were live chickens and that I had no where to keep live chickens. He assured me that they'd be fine so I went with it. He carried them by their feet squawking and thrashing all the way to our kitchen. I opened the door to the kitchen he just set them down and they all huddled together and didn't move all night. Gladis had the job of preparing them the next day. Glad I didn't.

Today I had another meeting with a man who owns an international agriculture company based here in Peru. He lives in Lima but has a house in Chempen where his main business is stationed. He and his wife (who works at the world bank) came and visited and looked around the orphanage. They were super nice people and loved what they saw. They were both also fluent in English which made the meeting that much better, although I would forget sometimes between sentances and switch back to spanish but they didn't seem to mind. They said that they would love to help, and we exchanged contact information. They said that they will definitely help us out and they will try and talk to their friends as well. I mentioned it didn't have to be financially and he said he would love to send fruit, vegetables, rice and sugar! So please be praying for that as well!

And now I just got done resting a little trying to catch back up on sleep from being awake recieving chickens haha. But now I need to get ready to go to a birthday party for a big politician here in Pacasmayo. Pastor Auden, Wendy, and Maribel all got formal invites and they said they could bring someone along so I'm going. There's gonna be all the businessmen and big shots in one room so we'll see how that goes. I'll keep you updated.

Getting Better

Well the last couple days are have been a little better. I got news that after Maribel and I left the courthouse that the parents of Luber showed back up and the judge got a statement from both of the kids stating that they wanted to go back to their family. I feel a little bit better about it, but I know that they will just be back on the street in no time living with their 15 year old uncle again... but at least they'll be happy I guess. They also know that they can always return to live with us if they want a bed and some food.

Today was another hard business day though. We have to make some cuts in the expenditures because after I showed Avis exactly what they spent the last couple of months she realized there was no way that she could continue for much longer paying that much money. So the first thing I have been doing is making cuts in the salaries. I felt that there is a lot of extra people that are getting paid or people that are getting paid too much. So I had a couple of tough meetings with some people today, and have a couple more tomorrow.

After all the salaries are dealt with I'll be going through and setting budgets for everything. So if you guys are wondering if I'm busy....the answer is yes. Yes indeed I am.

I'll post some more pictures and stories of kids soon hopefully. I will be able to spend a lot more time with them in the next weeks. This week has just been kind of hectic with all the trips back and forth to Trujillo and all the meetings.

This job hurts

I had a bad day. I woke up at 5:30 to take the 2 new kids to see the judge for his decision on their case. That part I didn't mind, it actually was probably the highlight of my day if I had to think of one. When we got to the judges office there were 12 family members outside waiting. About 7 for Luber and 5 for wilson. The kids pretty much froze when they saw their dads there. We walked inside the office while the family members waited outside. First the Judge talked with the kids for just a little bit, then went outside to talk with the family members.

The judge decieded that he couldn't get enough info from the kids so they were going to have us go to the psycologist. He told us to go walk down the hall to the other room. As soon as we walked out of his office the family members grabbed their kids and made a run for it. At this point I wasn't really sure if I could do anything physically to try and get the kids back so I just let the staff handle it. Well, their way of handling it was to call downstairs to the security gaurds and tell them not to let anyone out. It's a good plan in theory but when there's 12 people bull rushing 2 guards it doesn't really do a lot of good. The security guards where able to get one kid, Wilson. So we brought Wilson back upstairs to the judges office. The judge was absolutely furious at the parents, but had to go to another meeting. So the judge headed off to another meeting telling us to wait in his office meanwhile the police where looking for Luber on the streets.

Wilson by now was absolutely horrified, and was in so much emotional agony it was hard for me to watch. After awhile we calmed Wilson down and he started talking to us again. Then all of a sudden he bolted for the door. Since no one else was going after him I took off and chased him down in the middle of the courthouse. When I brought him back all the secrataries and law clerks were patting me on the back and giving high fives....ya no problem I'm just doing your job. So now of course Wilson wouldn't talk to me anymore cause I just took away his last hope of freedom. And once again he was an emotional wreck. He calmed down after awhile and I went to go talk to him again. He made it clear that no matter where he went he was gonna run away. I explained to him how he already knows how hard the streets are to sleep on at night, how hungry he gets trying to survive on his own, and how he knew if he ever wanted a comfortable bed, food to eat and a safe place to live all he had to do was come with us. That little pep talk didn't help to much cause he just curled back up into a ball and went silent again.

The judge finally returned after about an hour. After yelling at the family for another 15 minutes he started to talk with Wilson. Wilson then told another story to the judge of where and who he was living with. He told his story 3 times each time changing it pretty drastically. So no one really knows what's up with him. The conversation ended with the Judge saying, well you don't want to leave with your parents so you're going back to Pacasmayo, you'll make plenty new friends there and all will be ok. Well, Wilson wasn't having that either. So he started balling again and freaking out. I told Maribel that we can't take him back with us, cause he'll run away the first chance he can get. So we explained to the Judge that no matter where Wilson goes he's going to run away, and it would probably be much better for him to run away in his hometown than to run away in a strange place where he doesn't know anyone.

So the Judge told me and Maribel just to go ahead and leave. But he told the parents that we where coming back to get Wilson shortly. The judge was still trying to hold Wilson ransom in hopes that they could bring back the other kid. So me and Maribel left and that's the last we saw of him. I'm guessing that Wilson was returned to his parents... I'll just have to find out next time I'm there. Which is hopefully a long time.

Maribel and I were pretty heartbroken and pissed. The security guards there and the system is just a joke. I now understand why there is such a problem with adoptions here. Maribel called her friend who is a journalist and told him to write a news story about how crappy the security gaurds are and how big of a mess the courthouse is.

My day didn't get any better when I got back to the house. I had a meeting with Avis about the financial state of the ministry...it didn't go so well. That meeting lasted 4 hours. So now, once again I am completely exhausted and also emotionally drained.

I ate dinner with the kids and hung out with them for a little while. Now I'm just wondering if I'm crazy to voluntarily put myself through this much hurt and work.

Here's hoping tomorrow is better.

Happy Father's day...?

Well today was the day that the school put on the father's day celebration. The kids had been building it up for me for the last week, making sure I was going to be there at 3:00 pm. I couldn't make it until 4:00. I didn't have a choice.

We got a call around 1:15 today saying that the fathers of the 2 new boys were coming to pick them up. Wilson couldn't even remember the name of his father 2 days ago, and Luber didn't want to have any part in leaving. Thankfully there's a law that says the kids don't have to go with someone they don't want to go with. However, the fathers still had the right to see their kids and speak with them. The kids didn't even want to see their parents, but we had to let the fathers see them. So I stayed in the room with the two boys as Maribel let one father come in at a time. First came Luber's dad, and as soon as he walked in the room Luber just curled up into a ball in his seat and hid his head under his arms. His dad begged and begged him to go. Telling him that his mother was worried, and that his grandma was sick and dying. (These are the same relatives that he escaped from to go to trujillo). After about 2 mins of pleading Maribel and I told him he had to leave. Then came Wilson's dad, who Wilson said he ran away from because he beat him. As soon as he walked in the room Wilson did the same thing as Luber, burried his head in wouldn't even look up. Wilson's father didn't even start talking to him, instead he started talking to Luber begging Luber to go until I interuppted and said... "You can talk to you're kid, not Luber" Then he just kind of said, "Eh come on Wilson lets go now." Wilson didn't move and still wouldn't even look at him. So then we made him leave the room. Then Maribel came in and said.."We need proof that the kids didn't want to go." So, we had to let both parents in again while I video taped them begging their kids to leave. It was so hard to watch. Luber's dad even broke out into an extremely fake cry and we said.."ok you're done." and made him leave.

As soon as the father's left the boys looked up and started smiling. And then they told me "Our dad's lie to us, they say they will treat us good now, but when we get back home we know what will happen." So monday we have to bring them to the Judge and show him the film and the Judge will talk to the boys and decide if they will stay with us or go with their parents, and if they stay with us how long they will stay with us until they reopen the case.

So, after that was over I took them over to the school for the Father's day celebration...ironic..I know. I was about an hour late, but that was kind of ok because it lasted for another 2.5. These little school celebrations have a tendancy to take forever. During the celebration they had a video montage with all the kids video taped saying things like,"I love you dad" then showing a photo of them and their dad up on the screen. I was up on that screen about 10 times. All the other parents were probably wondering who the heck is that dude.

After the Father's day celebration I took some kids out to go eat. Some different one's than the week before. So it was the twins, Carlos, and the two new kids Luber and Wislon. We went to the Estacion to eat. They all wanted Cebiche so it was kind of expensive. It ended up costing 30 bucks total for the 5 kids, Rita and I to eat. So it wasn't too bad. I realized though on that trip that I'm going to have my hands full with Wilson. He's always testing me to see if he could 'escape'. Pretending like he's going to dash off, or hiding behind corners. Also halfway to the resturant he stopped at a wall and just took a pee right there in the street. Then I discovered on our moto ride back that he stole a knife from the Estacion. He's definitely a kid from the street. His cousin Luber is much more laid back and refined so I hope that might help Wilson come around. Meanwhile all the other kids are starting to get angry with me because I've been spending too much time with the two new kids.

After the Judge verdict I will post some pictures. But it wouldn't be wise for me to do anything like that right now.

Tomorrow Avis and crew get back. So I'll pick them up in the morning. It will be a busy day. I will be helping them all move in and get situated. Then I told the kids I would help them fix the bikes, then I told them that they could play some video games.

Lots to say... and new kids.

So the last two days I have gone to Trujillo. Today I brought back two kids with me, more on that later.

So yesterday I woke up bright and early remembering that I forgot to renew the insurance on the van. So before we could go I had to get it renewed. We didn't leave until 9:30 instead of the planned on time of 7:30. It was a full day at the hospital. We found out that Lourdes does infact have a tumor on her abdomen that is the size of a fist. They are going to have an operation to remove it as soon as they can...which is August. It's August because there is a waiting list for operations because there are so few doctors and beds available. So please be praying for Lourdes.

Today was the big day at the courthouse. We arrived on time to our court appearence for the final decision for the Rojas family. Or at least that is what I was expecting. What it actually was was the final date for us to plead our case. So we had been waiting over 6 months for a 5 minute presentation that our lawyer was limited to. The other side didn't show up to plead their case so we got a little extra time. So...now the actual final decision doesn't come for another month or so. After the case with the supreme court we decided to go meet our judge that deals with all of our kids cases. Well... as we walked in so did two boys accompanied by the police. The police had picked them up off the street. Their names are Luber and Wilson and they are cousins. They say they are 13 and 14 but they look and act like 10 and 11. So they were sitting in the judges office completely beside themselves sobbing uncontrollably. We decided that we could make space for them because we had one room in a house that didn't have any beds in it.

They didn't want to go anywhere. Luber was the first to give in and get up off his chair, but there was much more cohersing Wilson. Wilson started latching on to railings and chairs that we would walk by but Luber would just keep walking so eventually Wilson would get up to catch up to his cousin. Then as we were getting on the bus Wilson hid under a table that we pretty much had to pull him out from under. He settled down a little bit once he got his seat on the bus, but was still crying. Thankfully they started a movie on the bus and they both became glued to it. Wislon even cracked a smile about halfway through at a funny part.

When we arrived in Pacasmayo, Wilson started rapid fire with questions, like how far away is it to trujillo, where do those taxis go, ect ect... all kind of implying he was trying to come up with a master plan to escape. Which I'm sure they are still trying to figure out as I'm writing this. We soon made it to the Orphanage where they showered, changed into fresh clothes and got something to eat. During lunch they started talking to me. I found out that they also know Quechua which is the native language in the mountains here in Peru. So they had fun probably making fun of me in Quechau for about 10 mins after they realized I didn't know it. Then we went outside and I kicked the soccer ball around with them for awhile. After that there was a lot of games today at the orphanage put on by the pyscologist. So they got to meet all the other kids and have fun, eat ice cream and all the snacks you can imagine.

After dinner I was sitting down with them and they were asking me a bunch of questions like, "How are my parents going to know I'm here, when will they come get me...etc." I found out through a bunch of questions they live with their uncle in Trujillo above a small shop. Their parents live in Cajamarca which is a mountain town. It came up later that their uncle they live with is 15 because they said, "I'm worried about my uncle, he's sleeping alone tonight." I replied "well... I think your uncle can probably take care of himself. Then I thought to ask...well how old is your uncle." Also... where they live isn't really a house, more like a crawl space I don't think the store owner knows he has people living in. In order to pay for food they sell chocolates from 4 am, until 12. Eat lunch, then supposedly go to school (kind of doubting that one) then sell more chocolates until late at night. They really want to go back to Trujillo... but right now the odds aren't looking so hot. I had to drum up an extra lock tonight to put on the big swinging gate because I already caught them trying to sneak out once. I tried to explain to them how dangerous it was for them to try and walk around by themselves, but I don't think they really care much.

I'll post some pictures of today's happenings tomorrow, but right now I gotta get some shut eye.

The real visitation day.

Well, I was wrong about last Sunday, it wasn't really the visitation day. Yesterday was. It was actually a great day. Many parents showed up and even some people who weren't at all related showed up. However Jose's dad still didn't come. Jose told me it was because he was building a house. He wasn't too down about it, but I still hung out and watched some cartoons with him while the other kids in the house were with the visitors. Maribel took some other kids who didn't have visitors to a park.

There was one lady who came to visit the twins, Lenny and Yonell, who wasn't related to them at all. She was a neighbor who lived down the street and cared for them a lot when their mother would disapear. She was extremely nice and brought them spaghettie and pepsi. She assured me that she would come every single visitation day. I'm pretty sure that she wants to adopt them which would be great, however the mother is no where to be found to sign off on custody papers. So in order for her to be able to adopt them, the mother can't come and visit them within the next 6 months and no relatives can show signs of wanting to be their care givers. Then they will be declared abandon and she can adopt them.

Another new boy, Cristofer, had some people show up to visit him as well. An aunt, uncle, grandmother, 2 cousins, and his birthmother. I was a little confused because Maribel told me that the aunt that was there was the one who told authorities that Cristofer and his little baby brother, Walter, should be sent here. So it was that Aunt and the mother that got the kids taken away there together. I'm probably gonna have to clarify that story because it just doesn't sound right. But anyway, he gave me a piece of cake that his grandmother had brought for them all to share. It was actually some really good cake. They also brought Cristofer a giant box of chip and cookie bags, and a big box of diapers for Walter. I was really impressed because most of the time when parent's babys are here they see it as a way to not have to pay for diapers.

Overall it was a good visitation day. Veronica (the social worker) told me that it was the most people they had ever had come to visit in one day.

Tomorrow I'm driving another van full of kids to Trujillo. I was promised this time we will be back before dark. Then wednesday I am taking a local bus to Trujillo for the FINAL judge visit for the case of the Rojas Reyes (Gerson, Yhonson, Joel, Betsy, Sibila). In this case he judge will actually decide whether or not they will stay or go. EVERYONE PLEASE PRAY for that case to go well. If the judge says they have to leave, the only thing we can do is start up the process to do more investigation into the sisters family which they would be going to, to prove that they don't have the financial means or the space in their house for 5 more kids.

Also, please pray for Lourdes. She has a tumor on her abdomen that needs to be operated on. Tomorrow we are going in for the final examination before the surgery. Tomorrow they will set the date for her operation.

Father's Day photos.

Here are some pictures that I took with some of the kids that go to school. They needed pictures with their dad for a Father's day project. You can click below to see larger versions.

Tour

Here's a quick tour of my house. It's mainly quick because there isn't much too it. It is a pretty
nice pad though if I do say so myself. I picked up my TV this morning and that took way longer than you would expect. After I told them which tv I wanted it took them 2 hours to get all the paper work figured out and get me out the door. I will say that the salesman though was really great. I had him check every single TV they had for sale for an S-video plug in, because I really want to be able to hook my computer up to the TV if I need to. He was sweating by the time he was done. He then went and found a taxi for me and made sure the guy didn't overcharge me cause I'm a gringo.



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Besides picking up my TV and shooting this video I also got my haircut by milagros. Milagros is taking hair cutting classes on the weekend so I let her practice on me. Then I started to work on the scheduals for the guards because no one really knows when they are supposed to be working. After that I came back and ate lunch with the kids, did homework with them, and then of course we had to test out the new TV by playing a 4 player racing game. After that for missionary night all the gringos went over to pastor Audens house. He and his wife made some grilled chicken and delicous cakes.

The other day all the kids needed pictures with me for a father's day project they are doing in school. I'll post those pictures next time. Right now the internet is being a little difficult.

Trujillo adventure.....And the work begins today.

Well, Trujillo was a long day. We left at 6:00 am and got back at 8:30 PM. It was my first time to drive that far here in Peru, and drive in the crazy traffic in Trujillo. I know that I was no where near as relaxed as my dad was when he made the trip there and Maribel and Mari Ester can attest to that. I told them no singing or yelling while we were in Trujillo so that I could concentrate.

3 girls had to go to the doctors, so we dropped them off there and took 2 others to the dentist. After that we went and picked up some engineering plans that we had to have for some inspections to get certified. We then went to a market where I was able to buy my huge carpet and bathroom mats...now that I put them down I could really use another 2 or 3 mats for the bathroom, they weren't as big as I thought. We then went to a window shop where we bought some plexi glass 26 windows. I knew we were in for a long wait when after an hour and a half they had cut 5. We decided to come back another day for the 8 we didn't get.

The drive home was the adventerous part. It was late and very dark and there are no lights out in the middle of nowhere. Between 2 cities Trujillo and Paijan, I hit a big pile of wood and metal that was in the middle of the road. At first I thought I had blow the tires but they weren't. I was getting ready to pull over out in the middle of nowhere to check out what the heck I was dragging behind the car. I thought it was our bumper or muffler in the back. But as I started slowing down Maribel and Mari Ester told me not to. I found out that people put that stuff there as a trap. And when people run over it and pop a tire then pull over to fix it, they come up and rob them. I then had my eyes open for more of these traps and dodged another 2 before we got to the next city with a gas station. At the gas station I jumped out of the car to see what it was we were dragging and it was the spare tire holder. Whatever I had run over had knocked the spare tire holder out of place. All I had to do was pop it back into position and all was good. No damage to the car or anything. I really don't want to drive back from Trujillo in the dark again.

So today I had planned on finally cleaning my house... and I still plan too. It's only 1:00 right now, so there might be a chance. After I swept and mopped about 1/5th of my house I got a phone call and they needed to talk to me over in the school office. So.... while I was over there I had an impromptu meeting with our lawyer about a legal case we have going on right now, found out that the guards/janitors aren't showing up at night, that someone is trying to build a house on our property, we needed more ink for a printer that you can only get from the states, and that we need more tools over at the school.

I decided I really need a big schedualer/note taking book.

Sorry that this post lacked pictures and details, but I gotta get going.

The Paseo and Flag Day

Ok, so it wasn't a carnival or a street, or really anything I thought it was gonna be. It was actually and old resort. It was a great place to go because it was all enclosed and made it easy to keep all the kids together. In all there were about 30 kids out of the 86 in the school that got to go because they received grades of B's and above. The kids in the picture to the left are the kids that got to go from Casa de Paz. In the resort they had a couple empty pools and a soccer stadium and a big playground area with swings and other stuff. I was worried when I saw the empty pools because the kids and I were promised there was going to be swimming.

We started out in the soccer stadium and played a bunch of random games and sang some songs. One of the teachers also dressed up in a mickey mouse costume which was pretty ridiculous. Meanwhile the local volunteer firefighters showed up and got out their generator and started filling one of the pools. After a couple more games they handed out some awards, then the swimming started. The pool was filled up so it was just over most of the kids knees, then while they were in it the firefighters had fun continually spraying the kids down with a firehose.

Here's the twins enjoying the swing

The mickey mouse outfit.

So today was Peruvian flag day and so there was the big march with all the schools just like last year. We showed up at 8:30 as instructed by our school principle, the shin dig didn't get started until 10:30. I need to go ahead and adjust myself to the punctuallity of the Peruvians before I go crazy.

After that I came back and played outside with the kids and got a nice sunburn. Today was also the parental visit day. The first sunday of every month. Jose was very excited and told me that today his dad was coming to visit him...only 1 parent showed up today and it wasn't Jose's. I felt so bad for him and all the other kid's that had long faces today as they realized their parents weren't coming.

At around 5:00 I cleaned up then hung out and ate some peanut butter sandwhiches with Jan and Cherry, the two volunteer English teachers. Then at 7:00 we had the last Church service of the revivial weekend. We had a couple bands from out of town come and lead us in worship. That ended around 9:30 with a candle light vigil.

Tomorrow I should finish getting set up. I still need a couple of things from the big street market that only comes around on Mondays. I need to get a big area rug and some mats for my bathroom. I'm also getting ready to buy a TV, I have heard I can get them for super cheap, around $30, so I'm keeping my eyes open for that. Then I will be able to hook up the xbox and playstation 2 that the youth pastor left down here a year ago.... Hopefully they still work. It'll be something to entertain the kids (and me) when there's extra time.

Getting set up.

I arrived in Pacasmayo yesterday about 4 hours later than I should've. The bus got delayed in Lima for one reason or another. So because I was so late, there wasn't anyone still waiting at the bus stop, They told me they gave up by the time the kids had to go to school.

After I went around and said hello to everyone I got my keys to my room and went to work. I started with a bed that wasn't mine and a cement floor. I went into town to buy all the immediate needs first. Toilet paper and gatorade. I also got some hangers, a laundry basket, a wire rack self for my bathroom. I came back and realized I had forgot a couple things, but those had to wait until today. Right as I got unpacked the kids returned from school. I ate lunch with them and helped with the homework for awhile, then because it was Thursday, it was "Missionary night" the one night that all the gringos make sure they have cleared out on their schedual and get together for a meal cooked by alternating gringos. It was the english teachers Jane and Sherry's turn to have it. They fixed fried chicken and mashed patatos and gravy... I really don't know how they made it taste so good with whats available to cook with here in Peru. After dinner we usually play games, but they wanted to change it up and watch a movie. They picked P.S. I love you. So... its me and Pastor Auden and 6 ladies watching this movie...can't say that me and auden were fans.

Today I was able to go buy a bed and a cell phone. I bought the bed from the same guy I bought the bikes from over the christmas break. Once again he delivered the goods himself straight to my door, then set up the bed frame and mattress for me. I was also able to get my internet hooked up today, it was a more complicated process than it really needed to be... but I have it now so I can't complain. I also bought a leash and a choke chain for the guard dog Sparky. I'm going Ceasar Milan on him and starting to teach him how to behave.

On a more serious note, one of the kids returned to his parents today. His name is Kael and he is 8 years old. I just met him yesterday because he had only been in the orphanage for 4 weeks. He came to the orphanage because it was reported to authorities that he was being forced to work in the trash dump in trujillo from 10:00pm to 6:00 am, collecting bottles and other stuff that could be sold. His parents however were VERY vigilant in getting him back and had all the documents that were prepared by the judge,he was also very excited and happy when they came today to pick him up. So we are all praying that all goes well for him in the future.

We then had a church revival service tonight from 7:00 - 9:00 lots of singing and praying, it was great and there were more people there than had been in the past. This weekend Pastor Auden invited 3 different bands to come play in the church throughout the weekend.

Tomorrow I'm going to the "Paseo" (still haven't really figured out what that one means yet) with all the kids that recieved good grades for this past term. Supposedly at this Paseo there is swimming, games, food, rides etc... so it kind of sounds like a carnival. I'll make sure I take pictures and let you all know how it goes.

Arrival and Lima

I arrived safely in Lima last night at 11:00. I met a volunteer there who flew in from another part of the states and we stayed at the house of my good friend Richard.

This morning was another early morning, we woke up at 6:00 to go get started on my residency paperwork on the other side of lima. We got done with that around 10:30 then we went to MIMDES. I will probably be refering to MIMDES a lot so I should probably explain what it is. MIMDES stands for Minsterio De la Mujer y Desarrollo Social. It is pretty much the Peruvian version of the Division of Family Services. My goal when I visted today was to talk to somebody about how we can speed up adoptions for United States Citizens. I ended up getting to talk to 3 different people about the process and I think I made some headway. They now know my name and face and have told me that they will call their division in Trujillo on my behalf. It was pretty incredible that I was able to walk in without an appointment or without them even knowing who I was and be able to sit down and talk with them about our kids at Casa de Paz. God definitely had his hand on that. I was able to talk to them about everything I wanted. This last semester of 9 hours of spanish helped out so much. However, I´m glad that Richard was there to help me fill in a couple of holes in the conversations.

I´m taking the 8:30 PM bus to Pacasmayo so I should get there around 5:30 tomorrow morning. I´ll post again as soon as I get the chance.

Packing up and heading out.

Well, I leave tomorrow at 6:45 AM from the airport. I got the cheapest one way ticket I could find, it was around $620, I recommend using www.farecast.com it's a really great place to get cheap tickets. I think that I've got pretty much everything I need, two suitcases already packed full, and I think a couple pounds overweight. I won't arrive in Lima until 10:50 PM, where I'll be meeting another volunteer who is going to stay for the summer and teach English in the school. The next morning I'll start nice and early again, I have a meeting across Lima at 8:00 am to start my residency paperwork. After that I'm heading over to MIMDES (who is the Peruvian version of Division of Family Services) where I'll talk to them about what steps that we can do to speed up foreign adoptions through our organization, so getting straight to work, haha.

As far as this blog goes, I hope that you will continue to keep up with my journey. I would also like to add that I encourage you to leave comments or questions about anything you want. I will try and respond to all the ones that need to be responded to either just by posting back here, or through e-mail if you would like. I will also be posting an HTML spread sheet that you will be able to find in the links section to the right, in that spreadsheet I plan to document all of my expenses. I am doing this because I have had some very kind people that felt that God was calling them to support me even though I was not actively seeking support (for right now anyway). I feel that this expense sheet is something that will hold me accountable to be a good steward of God's money.

Some ways to get a hold of me.
Email: kevin.guier@gmail.com
skype: kevinguier

Address to send mail to.

Kevin Guier
Las Palmeras MZ "O" Lote 15
Pacasmayo, La Libertad, Peru


Once I get a structured schedule I will post times that work the best for skype chats. Feel free to try and give me a ring anytime you see me on it.

I'll be adding a Peruvian telephone number as soon as I buy a cell phone down there(if you feel the need to contact me immediately).