Except that we didn't fly to Huancayo. We flew to another airport about an hour bus ride away from our hotel in Huancayo. By the way, everything we did on this trip seemed to be an hour or two bus ride away. When we landed we could feel the light mountain air immediately. It felt and sort of looked like parts of Colorado, helped by the fact this area sits at almost 11,000 feet above sea level. It was nice to get out of the cloudy, grimy capital of almost ten million people. Huancayo is about 180 miles directly east of Lima, but is much easier to get to by plane due to the roads and it's location on the dry side of the Peruvian Andes.
Highlights of the flight included some nice scenery around the airport and "baggage claim". When you have a very small airport (a one plane, one seating area airport), baggage claim consists of a guy with a really big blue wagon...who loads it up, walks about 50 feet, and then unloads it. I appreciate the effort (and probable safety regulations), but I really could have wheeled my bag over from the plane myself.
We drove about 30 minutes and then stopped for ice cream. I don't like ice cream. I didn't get any ice cream. If I were traveling by myself I wouldn't have stopped or stayed an hour eating ice cream and talking to a bunch of people. The pros and cons of traveling with a group and having everything planned or dictated probably even out overall, so it really comes down to personal preference on whether traveling with a group is a positive or a negative for you. I didn't scream at anyone for, at, or over ice cream.
Eventually we got to our hotel in Huancayo after a long bus ride. I believe it was almost dark when we arrived. Dinner was served at a late hour at the hotel so we could meet a couple of the older students for which we had raised funds. Some of them were the equivalent of high school seniors, some of them had just started college. Each of them sat around the dinner table with a translator. While we ate we asked each other questions about where we were from, what we did as a living/what we wanted to be when we grew up/what majors were they studying, etc.
At the end of dinner "El Presidente" (or so my name given to the student in the middle of the group photo wearing the sport coat and giving two thumbs up) spoke about himself and on behalf of the group. They were all very thankful for the support they had received from us and Compassion to be able to start or continue their studies in the hope of making a better life for themselves and their families.
It's probably obvious, but I'll mention this any way. These children come from families in poverty and are the first or the very few of their family to attempt and/or attend higher education. All of these kids were very bright, intelligent and promising. In a country where a very small minority are able to attend university, these kids, through the help of the Compassion program they grew up in and our fundraising efforts, will have a much better shot of living up to their God-given potential.
