Last weekend decided to take a trip with ALL the kids from the orphanage. We left Friday morning because the kids were still on their week long vacation. We went out to the house mother Gina's house. She lives about 20 minutes outside of town on a farm that is in a river valley. It took me two trips in the van to get everyone there and that was still a stretch. We fit about 20 people in the van with clothes and food each trip.
When we all got to Gina's house we started off Friday with a trip to the river. It was about a 10 minute walk from her house and was a great place to swim. The older kids had fun swimming against the current and goofing off on their own. While the other volunteers and I took the little kids out and swam with them. The current was too strong for the little kids to play in it alone. We took some fruit out there and had a snack, then after about two hours we returned to the house and got ready for lunch. We had come pan fried pork which was excellent. After lunch we went to a different stream which was more of an irrigation ditch but was just as fun for the kids to swim in. The little kids could play by themselves in that one because it had some shallow parts that did not have much of a current. After the second swimming time we came back and ate dinner which was a turkey from Gina's house that she killed and cleaned for us to eat.
After dinner we went to Rosa's house when it started getting dark. Rosa is a lady who goes to the church and has a son in the school. She likes to be very involved with the kids. We all slept in her living room after watching all three Home Alone movies. All the kids were piled on mattresses and I was sleeping on top of a couple blankets on the floor (not the most comfortable thing). Throughout the night one little kids kept waking up and crying thus waking everyone else up. I think we all got about 3-5 hours of sleep that night.
Saturday we went back to Gina's house and did some more swimming in the morning. Then we did my favorite part of the weekend which was return back to Rosa's house for lunch. For lunch Rosa and her uncle prepared pork, chicken and beef by cooking it under ground surrounded by hot rocks they heated up in a brick oven with firewood. It was by far the best meal I have eaten in Peru. It tasted a lot like BBQ and was super tender. After lunch we lounged around for a little while then went and played some soccer. We headed back to the orphanage around 4:00 in the afternoon. Overall it was an excellent weekend, I had a blast and I know the kids had even more fun.
Packing up the van.
Looking out from the back of Gina's house, beautiful farm country.
Swimming in the big river
Swimming in the irrigation canal
Smashed together on some mattresses watching Home Alone movies
6 comments:
Machu pichu looks amazing and the photos from this post of the kids playing in the water and sleeping in a big pile are just as good. Thanks for being such an inspiration for me.
-j
wow ! that was an quite an undertaking! I'm sure they had a blast. where did all the mattresses come from don't tell me you carried them from the orphanage! I was scared for a minute that you were gong to say it was the best meal you've ever eaten! Glad you added in Peru to that. :)
LOL, I can't believe you watched ALL 3 home alone movies! That's hilarious! I was also wondering where all the mattresses came from. It looked amazing there! I noticed you cut your hair! I was looking forward to seeing it in person! You are The Man to make that trip happen for all those kids! I know you've been a tremendous blessing to everyone there!
Sounds like a fun weekend for the kids. The pic of everyone on mattresses made me smile. . . I'm not surprised it was a short night. :-)
That looks like some of the same swimming holes I used to swim in back about 50 years ago. I'm sure the kids will always remember the great times they had with you on your outings.
Looks like fun...you do a great job with those kids.
Post a Comment