Huaranchal

I went to the mountain village of Huaranchal this weekend. We left at 5:00 am on Friday morning and I just got back Monday at 12:00. It took us over 18 hours to get there because we got a flat tire only 1 hour away from our destination. I can't say that I didn't expect that flat tire though, we had way to many people in a conversion van going off-roading up the side of a mountain. We waited for Auden to get to the destination and look for a tire. He called me about 3 hours later saying that there were no tires that size there so he was going to have to go all the way back to Trujillo, so we were gonna have to spend the night outside or inside the van. I wasn't to thrilled about that. But, he called us back around 10:30 and said that he talked with the Mayor of Huaranchal and that there was a dump truck on its way up. So the Mayor called the dump truck and told them to pick us up and bring us and our things to the city.

Here is a slideshow of some pictures, I'll continue my story later. You can click on it and view the full size pictures which I recommend doing.

When finally arrived at our destination at 12:00 AM. I felt officially initiated into the Peruvian culture after that dump truck ride up the side of a mountain. The hotel was MUCH nicer than I could have imagined. We hadn't seen any civilization within 2 hours of this place, but there we were, in this city that out in the middle of nowhere, had a 3 story hotel with hot showers. It was the best shower I've had since I've been in Peru.

For our first day there, we went around the town telling people that we were going to have a concert and a message that night in their coliseum. I quickly made friends with all the kids in the town since I was pretty much the first white person who spoke Spanish and English that they had ever met. I was surrounded much of the day answering questions about Micheal Jackson, and "how do you say my name in English." I've realized that it's a lot more fun to just make up names for them, rather than tell them that names usually just translate literally. Through talking with them I found out that this city only exists for mining, and that all of their dads worked in the mines, and so did the boys when they weren't in school and were over the age of 10.

In the afternoon Fred set up his projector in the Municipal building and showed a bunch of kids Christian movies. Only about 10 or 15 kids showed up for that. But then later that night after the concert we had, we put the projector on a wall outside and had a crowd of about 60-70 people watching.

The second day was Sunday. Every Sunday a bunch of soccer teams come from all around to play in Huaranchal. I spent the most of the day watching soccer with my gang that had formed yesterday. The other people in the group took a hike to the hot springs. I decided not to go to the hot springs because it was 85 and sunny out, and sitting in a hot-tub and getting a sunburn did not sound like fun at all to me, and that's exactly what happened to most of them. In the evening we had another concert and showed some more films afterwards. There were quite a few people to see the films again.

Overall, I really loved that place. It is by far my favorite place I've been in Peru so far. It's probably the closest thing I've seen to a Utopian society. It's built around a huge soccer field and people just play games of soccer and volley ball all day on the weekends. Store shops never are locked, no one is ever worried someone is going to steal from them. We were able to leave our van abandon on the side of a road for an entire day and night and it was perfectly fine. All of our music and video equipment was never locked up, mainly because there wasn't really a good lock anywhere around, and nothing went missing. So pretty much a completely different attitude than people on the coast. And they are proud to say that too. However they aren't without their problems. They only have 1 doctor, no hospital, only 1 small school building for around 800 students, and surprisingly no police. They have 1 sheriff type guy who is somehow able to keep the peace between 7,000 people. Oh and all the guys were pretty much drunk every minute of the weekend. I'm guessing at some point during the week they have to sober up to work in the mines.

Circus

Along with our newest volunteer, Abby, the circus came to town this weekend. The circus was kind of weird, and I'm glad I went to go check it out before I brought any kids, because there were a lot of pretty inappropriate acts. Abby, Cherry, Gorge, and I went and even we were thinking that some stuff was just kind of awkward. They did have some cool stuff though, like an actual lion tamer with 5 huge lions. They dragged Abby into the lions cage and made her pet them. That was pretty intense. There was also the strong man, who just walked on his hands a lot. They also had a trapeze act which was kind of cool. Of course they also had clowns to. Here is a picture of one of the clowns. Although there were five clowns, this one was special. Someone please tell me what is so crazy about him.

Everything is going well, and this next weekend I plan on taking a trip into the jungle with Pastor Auden, Fred, Maribel and a couple of other people. Auden is going to be doing some mission work there and Maribel and I will be going farther into the jungle to go retrieve some birth certificates for the Rojas Reyes family.

Apendicitis

So yesterday I was woken up with a call from the school telling me that they thought Marinella had apendicitis. At the moment Maribel was taking care of it. She brought Marinella to the center of health here in Pacasmayo and they did some peliminary tests. They needed to have an ultrisound done but the doctor wasn't there who could do it. So I brought them to the hospital in Guadalupe which is about 25 minutes away. There she was attended by another doctor who did some more tests. A blood sample and a urine sample. After that they finally got around to the ultrisound. The blood test and the urine test came back negative, but the doctors were still a little worried because she had all the symptoms, and her pain was continually getting worse. A side note, all this was taking hours and hours. It was 4:00 in the afternoon before the doctors decided that she needed to have the surgery. And at that point, we found out that there was no anethesiologist in Guadalupe so she had to be transported to Trujillo. I said that I would take her but they assured me that it would be better to go in an ambulance. So we waited another 3 hours for the ambulance to arrive at the hospital.

I thought it was some kind of bad joke when the ambulance got there. All it was, was a pickup truck with a camper shell. They rigged it up with rolling cots and called it an ambulance. No medical equipment, nothing. Also the bed light of the truck was out so for light in the back compartment they brought them a flashlight, but the first flashlight they brought them didn't have enough batteries so they had to go get another one. Maribel and I were extremely upset that we waited for 3 hours for this, all the while Marinella was getting worse. Then they said they were out of gas so they had to go fill it up with gas. After all that, they were ready to go. Except for the fact that no doctor or nurses wanted to go to Trujillo. If people ride in an ambulance they have to be accompained by a doctor and a nurse. So finally someone who didn't suck finally showed up on the scene cussed out all the crappy doctors and nurses and hopped in the back of the ambulance and they took off at 7:30.

Maribel and the house mom Sindy went with her in the ambulance. I went ahead and drove myself back home in the van. I hadn't ate, drank or showered all day and I was about ready to pass out. I called Maribel at 10:00 and they were just getting into the hospital. At 11:00 they were starting the surgery. I called this morning at 10:00 and they said that everything was ok. The surgery went well and she should be ready to leave Monday.

This is not the actual ambulance because I didn't have my camera with me. However I found this image on the internet, and it is exactly what she rode in.

Long day.

First off, Sparky did in fact eat the kittens. I'd like to say they got lost but he actually did it infront of the girls so I can't really use that excuse. We are now down to 2 kittens last time I checked. I'll try and get some pictures of the girls with the kittens today before we lose the other ones.

Yesterday I went to Trujillo with 7 kids to bring them to a dermatologist. We were going to burn some more warts off, but the doctor decided to give them some topical medicine instead. I think I agree with the doctor. The visit only took about 20 mins, but we had to wait for 4 and a half hours. It was a private clinic and we didn't pay in advance so we had to wait for all the other people who paid to go first. So after that got over with we went and ate lunch, then the kids and I waited in the car for 4 hours while Maribel and Galdys bought some things in the market. Then I drove everyone home at 8:00. So ya, it was a pretty long day.

Utilities Blessings

Well just a couple days ago we found out that we did indeed get approved for having more electricity. The electric company has already started putting in another pole next to our compound so more electricity should be arriving shortly.

The water situation also seems to be solved. We have been getting much more water lately. When we talked with the company they said it was because that the dam had closed its gates and that one of their wells were broken. So I guess they finally fixed their well and the dam has opened its gates.

We also got a new boy last week. His name is Tito and he is 9 years old. At this point we aren't sure how long he is going to stay. He supposedly has 7 brothers and sisters and was working in a circus. The police picked him up in Guadalupe off the streets. He is very talkative and doesn't really seemed to be phased by coming here at all. At first we had some issues with him hitting Maribel and some of the other kids, but I think that he now understands how to behave here.

Two nights ago some girls found some kittens outside and are now taking care of them. There were 4, but as of this morning there are only 3. I'm pretty sure that Sparky ate one of them. I specifically told the girls to make sure that Sparky is in his pen when they opened up the laundry room door where the kittens are staying. I think they learned that lesson the hard way. I'll take some pictures of the girls with thier kittens later today and post some pictures.

Yogurt Factory

On Friday we visited a yogurt factory that is about a 10 minute ride away from the orphanage. All the kids ages 6 and up got to go see how yogurt is made. It was actually a very interesting tour and the guide did a great job. He showed us the holding tanks for the milk, the boiling room the mixing room and the bottling room. Then he took us all into the walk in refrigerator where they store all of thier product. It was the biggest refrigerator I've ever been in. However, we didn't get to see the 1600 cows they have for milk and he wouldn't let me take any pictures of the bottling room or the refrigerator, so I was a little disappointed in that. After the tour he gave all of us free yogurt samples, and let me tell ya, fresh yogurt is extremely good. Probably one of my favorite things I've had down here. I also learned that you can buy yogurt straight from the factory, so thats what I did. I bought 2 liters of it and it is delicious. I found out that since all the stores I buy the yogurt from around here don't have refrigerators it turns the yogurt sour after only 3 days...so thats why all the yogurt I have been eating previously is a little acidic.

Pre-School March

Here are a couple pictures of a parade that our preschoolers when to on Friday morning. Danilo also went to the same parade with his own school. The parade was for all the preschools and special needs schools in Pacasmayo. After walking 10 blocks with 10; 3,4, and 5 year olds went went to the beach for a little bit. We actually shortened our part of the parade by intentionally turning right while the rest of the parade turned left at the end of the main street.