Today, Friday, is my last full day of normal life at the Casa Girasoles home in Puerto Alegria since tomorrow, I will spend all day in Iquitos, giving a tour of the Belen market, medical clinic that Scripture Union runs and spending an afternoon at Quistococha (which is a local zoo and lake where we will go swimming). After a long day tomorrow, I will leave the team in Iquitos to stay at a hotel, and return for my final night in Puerto Alegria before returning to Lima on Sunday.

When I first arrived to the jungle at the beginning of July, I did not know what to expect. Would I make it in the heat, with the mosquitos? How would I handle a slow, very relaxed life? What I completely forgot about is that when you live with 40 boys, there is never a dull moment. Between stories, jokes, photos, hugs, swinging in a hammock, soccer games and work teams, the past 7 weeks have been full of good memories.

A few days ago when I was heading into Iquitos very early in the morning with Gene, we were talking about my time here in his house. He couldn´t believe that I had been here for such a long time already and didn´t realize that this was part of my final week working with him, the Girasoles boys and work teams. I told him how happy I was to have spent my summer at Puerto Alegria and how much I would miss each one of the boys and people at the home. He laughed, smiled, patted my shoulder, and asked when I would be back.

I could easily spend another 2 months here in Puerto Alegria.