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!

Arrival and Day 1

After 2 long days of travel we made it. After preliminary gear checks it looks like the computer we brought for Avis is going to be fine. I haven’t booted it up yet but everything is in one piece, so that’s a good sign. I was planning on sneaking into the orphanage and surprising the kids, but I got tackled by Gerson, Yhonson and Joel as soon as I stepped off the bus. I was the one who was surprised. After we unpacked our bags we shared a meal with Avis, Ashley, and Tony and Marianna who are a couple from Canada that are planning on building a house down here. I also received another surprise when Avis showed me the living quarters that Orelio and Carlos finished over the last couple months. I am sleeping in a one bedroom place that is mine to stay in when I come back in May.

Day 1- First thing first, I had to take the Rojas kids to get a haircuts. I had talked to them on Skype about a month ago and noticed that their hair was really long, and then they told me that my hair was too long. So I said, "well, I'll cut it when I get to Peru" so they decided to wait until I got here to cut their hair as well. So four weeks later we all had the longest hair we've ever had. After the hair cut we went and got lunch. After that my mom went with some of the ladies from the church to hand out bags full of necessities to the new group of poor people who migrated here. The people already in the town called it an "invasion". Basically a big group of people all moved to Pacasmayo at the same time with no possessions. While my mother was doing this I walked around the town and bought some supplies. Meanwhile dad was already doing what he does best, building a fence. He and Orelio had to build a temporary fence to legally divide the property. The boys and I helped, and they felt really macho learning how to drive nails and cut boards with a handsaw.

Ok, sorry there's no pictures, I've been trying for awhile to post them but for some reason the internet isn't agreeing with them right now. I'll try to get some up soon.

Merry Christmas

Thanks for all the donations. Here are photos of some of the 39 kids receiving their gifts. Yes, 39 now. There are 10 new ones from when I was there over the past summer, and 3 have been adopted out. The older ones received cards which informed them that they got to go to 10 days of summer camp, which starts January 22nd. They were all very excited when they found out (the house moms were too, haha). The younger kids each received their own gift as well.