About time

Well a lot has happened since I last posted so here’s a long one.

The wedding,

I’ll start with the wedding of Mari Ester. She was our secretary and great friend. I learned that in Peru the ceremony is just about the same, however it is just a lot more laid back (I guess like everything here). First they do a civil wedding the day before the ceremony. They go the city building and have a 10 minute ceremony where a judge has them sign some papers, and then some witnesses sign some papers, then it the judge pronounces them husband and wife. The room it takes place in is fairly large in size and decorated in red and white, the colors of the Peruvian flag. Only a few people go to this part, I was one of the few that were invited. After the ceremony ended when drank some sprite, then the groom took us out to lunch at a really nice restaurant. After we ate and were on the way out, Luis the groom, asked me if I could be his man of honor. So I obliged. I thought it was kind of strange that they would wait for the day before the wedding to ask me, and that they would ask me and not a brother or lifelong friend.

The next day was the actual wedding. It was outside under a white and green canopy. The wedding proceeded as they would in the states. However, it was a little unorganized. Everyone kept getting out of their seats and taking pictures throughout the entire ceremony. I kid you not, someone actually came up and stood next to the preacher and took pictures while he was talking, then they decided just to stay up there and stood next to the maid of honor. Afterwards the reception was in the same place, they just cleared out all the chairs and put out tables.

Kids update –

We had a couple of kids return to their parents and the twins got adopted to Italy. So right now we have 32 kids, the fewest we’ve had in about a year. Supposedly we are getting a family group of 5 within the next couple of days. Just 2 days ago we switched up the houses. Now we have 1 boy house and 1 girl house instead of them living intermixed. So far I think everyone likes it. I was moving beds around for what felt like an eternity. Bunk-beds don’t fit through door frames very well so I had to disassemble and reassemble 5 of them, but everything is in the perfect place now.

I also feel like a soccer mom these days. We have four scholarships for a soccer academy so I am bringing four kids every Monday, Wednesday, Friday for practice and every Saturday for games. I feel real cool pulling up in the mini-van, then giving rides to other kids without transportation to the games on Saturdays.

We got a new boy the day before Christmas. He’s somewhere around 12 or 13, he won’t really tell us anything about him or his parents. I think he must have had a really bad past because he is afraid that if we learn anything about him then we will find his parents and thinks that if we find his parents he’d have to go back with them. It was pretty good timing for him to arrive because as soon as he got here he was given Christmas gifts and Christmas parties.

Random Stuff –

My parents donated money for 3 semi-industrial washing machines so we are replacing them one by one when they break. We just had our one break last week and the first new washer is on the way.

The new pastors of the church got here last week they seem really great and I’m excited to work with them. The husband will also help with administrative duties allowing Avis to travel in the United States more often for fundraising, and the wife will work in the school teaching first grade.