Imminent Return

You might of seen on facebook already but I now have an official return date.  I bought my ticket for the 5th of January.  There has been a lot of changes in my plans since the last blog post so I'll catch everyone up to speed. I've decided to put my plans for starting a new project on hold for awhile, there are a lot of reasons for this, one of the main ones is that I have been offered a position at another orphanage in Trujillo.  The position was described as an administrative position and I am extremely interested in it.  I'll keep everyone up to date with how that unfolds.  The only thing keeping me from jumping all over this opportunity is the emotional attachment I have with the kids in Pacasmayo where I have been heavily involved in the past two years.

So the plan right now is that I will return to Pacasmayo in January and spend a month at the orphanage in Pacasmayo and see how things go, if things work out then it is a possibility that I stay there, but right now it is looking very likely that I will be going to Trujillo in February.  

To clear some things up, when I say "see how things go" I'm referring to the current unstable condition of the orphanage in Pacasmayo.  They recently had an inspection and they need to change a lot of things physically and administratively.  These things are in truth pretty simple to change it is just a matter of people wanting to change them.  Sorry I'm being vague I just don't want to step on anyone's toes right now.  The deadline for these changes are February and I'll have a good idea if they are going to be made when I arrive in January allowing my decision making process to be much easier.

On a side note you may have noticed I'm playing around with the format of the blog a bit.  Hang with me if things get a little crazy, and if you absolutely hate the new layouts just let me know via comments.

Getting into action

After a couple of more meetings with the people who own the house that I posted in my last post we have decided that it would be too risky to depend on them for the house. What we are doing now is looking for a new location to rent. We have also determined in order to get a smoother start that we will begin with an education and feeding center. In this center we will work primarily but not exclusively with 15-20 kids that are to be chosen through a process that accesses their needs. We will work with the children and their families (or caretakers) to help provide them with an opportunity for a better future. While working primarily with the selected children we will also be working very hard throughout the surrounding area doing community outreach, emergency relief, and family education.

There are so many areas of great need in the Trujillo area that we are a little overwhelmed at the possibilities right now. In the last month we have visited a couple of more locations one in particular is Alta Moche and in the next month we will be visiting a couple more so that we have a good idea of the different needs.

Some things we are looking for in the areas we visit are...

Poverty level

Need

Receptiveness of local government

Accessibility

Accommodations for possible volunteers

Availability of land, water, electricity

After we whittle the down the number of suitable locations we will be praying and doing a lot of discernment before we decide where to plant our roots.

Here are a few pictures of the Alta Moche location

The Future

I might of caused some stir at the Gateway business meeting this morning, so I figured that I would post this for anyone who was there or was not there and is interested in the idea I shared.

What you're looking at could very well be the future. This is a house that is possibly being donated for 5 years for the use of an orphan care facility. What I proposed this morning is that Gateway church sponsor the monthly support for the care of 15 kids that would live in this house while we simultaneously build our own orphanage on our own piece of land for the care of 30 orphan children down the road. More details to come, get excited!

Goodbyes

Well last Tuesday was my final day at the orphanage Casa de Paz. It was extremely hard saying goodbye to all the kids and people who work and live there. I am missing them very much right now and hoping that I can one day return for a visit. But for right now life must go on. It's been a little bit of a hard transition these first couple of days. I came back and my mom had fallen on her bike and broker her shoulder the day before so she couldn't come to the airport to meet me, then Friday we had to put down my old dog Cole who I got on my 12th birthday.

For some going away festivities the kids threw a "surprise" going away party for me. All the older kids went to Maribel's house and lured me up there so when I walked through the door they all jumped out screaming surprise! The party included a lot of dancing (there are videos of me dancing with kids and house moms but you will never see them...ever.) as well as eating some good food and cake. The after the cake they had what Joey B would call "Barnabas time" where they went around a circle and told me all sorts of heart touching things. Afterwards I could only manage to get out a few words to everyone but they knew how much I loved them all.

On my final day there a team from an organization called "Inca Link" came with a bunch of volunteers to throw the kids a party. It was the Dia de San Pedro so all the kids had the day off school. It ended up working out really well because I was able to spend the early morning with the kids all to myself and then hang out and play some games with them and the big team of 40 people who came around 10:00 am. The big team served as a pretty good distraction to keep me and the kids from completely losing it when I left. Yes there were still plenty of tears but they had something they could jump into and try and take their mind off of it.

So anyway, I will go ahead and sum up my time there. It was an amazing learning experience. What I have learned in this past year will benefit me and others who I come in contact with for the rest of my life. I learned about a lot about business and management, Peruvian government, politics: but the most important things I learned were relationships, parenting, love, sorrow, patience, and myself. I would say that Ecclesiastes 3 would be a pretty good summation. There were good times, and there were definitely bad times. But this year I spent living with these kids and all the experiences good and bad that came along with it I would not trade for anything in the world.

I would like to go ahead and use this entry to say that as one chapter ends another begins. I am very certain that in the future (~6 months - 1 year) I will be starting work on a new project in Peru. The project right now as it is shaping up is looking to be an organization that does youth development programs in the area of Trujillo Peru. Our first, and maybe our largest scale project will be an orphanage. I am still ironing out some details and as soon as I have everything ready to go I will disclose everything.

The kids and I

Surprise!

The people at my "surprise" going away party

The big team who came on my last day

Giving some lessons