Day four was a massive day. We did so much that I am going to have to break it up into three posts. Ironically, day four was on Labor Day...so I guess it was appropriate. We woke up early after a day of traveling and a late dinner, so I probably drank three cups of coffee at breakfast. After breakfast we hopped on a bus and drove across town to CDSP 357, the project where the beneficiaries of our fundraising efforts attend(ed).
If it weren't for the sign over an entrance one could easily miss this church. Unlike in this country, all of the churches we visited were just normal city buildings that had been transformed into churches. None of them were stand alone structures and none of them were the size of small football stadiums.
We were greeted by a flag ceremony that we walked though to get to our seats. The older university students had prepared several numbers for us. "El Presidente" led them in two or three dance routines to worship music in Spanish while the translators attempted to tell us what the words meant in English. These performances had been thoroughly planned out and practiced for us and involved a lot of steps. The kids did this for probably 10 - 15 minutes at Huancayo's 11,000 feet in elevation.
After the performances four of the pre-university and university students (many if the same kids that had joined us at dinner the night before) talked to us about themselves, what they wanted to study or were studying, and what they wanted to be when they grew up. A lot of them were studying either engineering or architecture at the local university. One student told us that when was older he wanted to be able to sponsor his own child in Peru through Compassion.
We took a quick bathroom break and I snapped a few pictures of the church courtyard and the area from the upper level of the church. When I went back in some of the other ladies at the church has prepared for us a special local dance and song. The local costumes they wore were pretty dazzling - the highland areas of Peru are known for their very bright and festive colors. Later on you may see a picture with a rainbow flag in it. That flag is associated with something much different in Peru and surrounding countries than our country. It's actually used to represent the legacy or territory of the old Inca empire.
When the show began I stood up against the wall to take some pictures. My timing was impeccable, as a few seconds later they grabbed everyone else from our group and danced with them in a big circle. Don't worry, I will have (and participated in) many other opportunities to dance with the locals in the coming days. After "So You Think You Can Dance" Peruvian style was finished we all were able to take some pictures with them.
At the end of the church performances we grabbed some snacks and then all broke up into several groups for another home visit. The only problem was that our bus driver had disappeared. After about 30 minutes of waiting and phone calls he showed up again. While we waited some of the other group members bought some cactus fruit from a local woman who was nearby. It was an odd combo of a cactus with an inside that looked like watermelon but that was the consistency of a kiwi fruit.
After we had finished our cactumeloniwi fruit and found our bus driver our smaller group headed off to visit Jan Pierre's house. Jan Pierre is in his first year of college and is studying to be a Civil Engineer. He is the oldest of eight children. His Dad works as a handy man and was able to join us. His Mom couldn't take the time off from work, but we were still able to meet three of his siblings, his aunt and his grandfather. They all lived together in this house as well as an uncle who stayed in another room since he wasn't feeling well. It appeared to me that most of the extended family lived together. I'd also like to mention the two dogs - the part golden retriever pictured gave me several "smiles" and I pet his head while it rested in my lap for most of the visit. The entire family was very thankful to meet us and have us in their home. My hope is that Jan Pierre can graduate, become a successful engineer, and help his entire family in the future.
As I was leaving the house I turned around and took a picture of the front door. It's one of my favorite pictures I took on the trip. I think you should all use it for your desktop wallpaper.
Day three was largely a travel day. After a long day two we were able to sleep in a little bit and have the morning to get used to being in a new country. After breakfast I worked out at the hotel gym. The group all had lunch at the hotel before leaving on another bus for the Lima airport to catch our flight to Huancayo.
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.
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.
