The next morning we woke up and met a couple of people from our group
in the restaurant in the hotel. A couple of quick notes about this: 1)
all of the hotels we stayed in were very nice. They had clean food and
water, things like WiFi, and good furnishings. They were just as nice as
any place I have stayed at in this country. 2) however, we weren't
supposed to flush the toilet paper (put it in the trash). 3) we all
still drank bottled water provided to us the entire trip. Lots of water.
I don't know why I felt like I needed to mention the above. Anyway, after breakfast we loaded up on a bus for an hour long bus ride to our first student center visit in north Lima. After navigating a few narrow streets our bus turned on the road to the church. All of the kids were waiting outside for us with balloons, posters, and other things. We were greeted with many cheers, songs and hugs. I felt like we were movie stars the way we were celebrated.
After we had been given a warm welcome from the church's pastor (through and interpreter) we began our tour of the student center. In this center one of the main highlights was the fully functioning bakery. This bakery is run by church staff and current and former students. The store front sells various baked goods to the community in the morning...not so much to make money, but as a way to teach kids cooking skills and as a ministry. While we were there we visited one of the classes and sampled each of the many desserts the kids had prepared for us. Each child took turns presenting how to make each dessert and then passed out a sample. They were all very good. The only problem was that it was right after a large lunch! We were all pretty full but didn't want to say no.
That afternoon we visited one of the student homes. We hired a tuk tuk to take us all the way to the top of one of the nearby hills where the house was located. The ride all the way up the hill and then on the bumpy dirt roads up to the house was a good experience. The houses there were essentially cement slabs laid on a hillside with some siding and tin roofs. Since I wasn't able to write the names down and it's been a couple of weeks I can't remember the names. I am terrible with names. However, this very young single mother lived with her daughter and younger sister alone. Her father had died of injuries when falling on at work. Her mother, who grew up and had family elsewhere in the country, had moved back to be with her family. The little girl in the picture is currently being sponsored by someone in the United States through Compassion and attends the church/child center we had visited earlier that morning. We spent a short amount of time there, maybe 30 minutes, asking questions and watching the little girl open the gift basket full of food we had brought with us (it was put together by someone else in country).
After the home visit we toured some more of the child center. One of the rooms/activities for the girls was cosmetology. In other words, fund girl time with hair and nails. Stacey was given a custom paint job that she wore until we started our hike about a week later. All of the kids seemed very happy, affectionate, and glad to see us. It was interesting to see how similar they were to kids in this country in a lot of ways. Kids are kids, no matter what country the are in I guess.
Towards the end of our time I met a boy who had the same name as me. I decided to give him my name tag as we were leaving for the day. He and his posse thought that was pretty cool. I wonder if he still has it. Stacey gave her name tag up too...
Over the next couple of weeks (as a am able to fund the time and energy) I'll be writing and posting pictures of our recent trip with Compassion to Peru. It was a very busy but great trip. I hope this will be something interesting for those of you that want to know a little more about it.
The couple of weeks leading up to the trip were very busy. The kids started school. I was trying to keep our second house up to snuff and various things replaced from hail damage (roof, windows, etc.) for the sale that would happen when we returned. Work was busy trying to get everything ready in my absence...and same for Stacey...and same for our own house...and same for the kids who would be watched by Grandma...and same for just getting everything needed bought and packed for the trip. I think you get the idea.
On Thursday we made it out of town just fine. We had a late afternoon flight to Miami (via Dallas) since there wasn't an option early enough on Friday to make our international leg to Lima. We spent the night in Miami. The next morning we walked across the street to get breakfast. The humidity was disgusting. Really...
The next day we met the group at our airport gate. It was just like the Amazing Race where everyone really meets for the first time in the airport waiting for their first flight. We had 17 people traveling together from various parts of the country (plus 3 that came from London). We really did have most of the country covered pretty well. There were people from California, Florida, New York, Wisconsin, Oklahoma, Colorado, etc.
The flight to Lima went fine. We were met at the airport by a couple of Compassion country staff and translators who directed us to our chartered bus after picking up our luggage. It was already nighttime in Lima when we arrived so there wasn't much to see after we landed. We then had a decent bus ride to our first hotel in Peru: the Casa Andina Hotel in a district known as Miraflores.
Jonathan had his first soccer practice today! He's been very excited about it all summer. So much so that we had to add this to the chalkboard countdown in the kitchen. This first year I started him in the park and rec league. Long term there are probably better options for his development, but this was a good place to start. The main reason I started him in this league is because it is arranged by school grade and then age, not just age. We wanted to get him started off on the right foot, and allow him to be the oldest in the group instead of the youngest.
So far he's been loving it and having a lot of fun. He is very competitive, so he celebrates every good kick and every bad kick even if it's just the ball going out of bounds. So far in practice scrimmages he's been one of the better players. Even when placed in goal to give the other kids a chance, he cheers them on and celebrates with them. I can't wait to see him in his first game. Although this is all about fun and development, he definitely is out there to win the game. Seeing him celebrate a goal or clap his hands together in disappointment is hilarious.
Backyard bouquets were poppin' this year. I think it's because I gave them new mulch and kept the rabbits away. Here are a couple of pictures of a larger grouping, but we had flowers of every color lining the back fence.
This weekend was my 20th high school reunion. Although there weren't many official gatherings (a night out at a bar, an casual afternoon at the park), and I didn't attend any of them, I was able to organize a breakfast at Over Easy for the guys I was closest to in high school. Mark and Bryan came in from out of state, but rest of us still live in town.
We had a really good time catching up with everyone "over" and "easy" couple of hours with breakfast. I'm glad I was able to see everyone together - it was just my speed. The day before Mark, Clare and I hiked the Manitou Incline together. At first we were able to chat, but that quickly gave way to the necessity of breathing.
