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Billy, Kate & Will in Perú

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Dearborn

Two weeks and two groups

Posted on Thursday, July 11, 2013 Leave a Comment

Two weeks, two groups and four locations later we’re almost to mid-July…

As I write this, I am heading south to Kawai, our boys home on the beach. We’ve just passed Km 41 on the Panamerica with about 47 more to go. I’m heading to Kawai just for the day to meet one of our groups, Health Bridges International, and to spend a few hours with Billy. HBI is a group of medical and dental volunteers from the United States and Peru. They come two times a year to put on medical and dental clinics for nearby communities where we have Girasoles boys homes. Billy has spent the past 4 days with the group in Ica and now they are spending another 4 days in Kawai.

For me, the last few weeks have added a considerable amount of kilometers to my travel total. I was able to spend a week with some familiar faces from home with the annual group from First Presbyterian. Despite the fact that Billy and I were in Michigan in April and have plans to return for home leave in the fall, it is still always nice to have a group from home come to our other home. I am blessed to have faithful supporters from my home church, and even more blessed that the church has partnered and committed to support Scripture Union through a yearly work group. The church has been faithfully sending a work team every year since 2001 and has been a blessing to the Girasoles boys and Scripture Union staff.

I started my week with the First Presbyterian group in Kusi and from there we headed south to Ica. In both locations the group wanted to have a party to celebrate friendship. We decorated the dining room with crepe paper and balloons one night before dinner and each boy received a party bag with some small toys, candy and a bottle of soda. Over the years, the group has watched many of these kids grow up and they wanted to do something special to celebrate the years of friendship shared.

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In Ica, we were able to share water with an area of La Tinguiña. The city is finally in the process of installing sewage and running water for the residents of the shanty town area but it is taking longer than anticipated and until then we will continue to support this area with free, clean drinking water.

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The group was planning on visiting a few school classrooms while they were in Ica but due to an unexpected government holiday for the “naming of the pope”, classes we cancelled. Nestor, the SU schools worker in Ica organized for a group of niños trabajadores (working children) to come to the home. A group of 50 children joined our 12 Girasoles boys for a morning of games and a lesson presented by the group.

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Later that evening, we took the boys and staff out for dinner – for a delicious pollo a la brasa (rotisserie chicken). It was a fun to go out for dinner with everybody and to do something out of the ordinary.

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At the end of the week, I said goodbye to the group and spent a quick night at home before meeting another group to go to Cusco for a few days – 24 high school students and 6 teachers from Scotland. They had just returned to Lima from spending the week prior in the jungle at Kimo and I was to accompany them for the remainder of their trip to Cusco and Puerto Alegria.

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Because of schedules and tourism, we only spent one day at the boys home in the Sacred Valley. Despite the quick trip, I had an opportunity to talk with the house parents Héctor and Maritza, play a few games with the boys and learn a few more phrases in Quechua (arinchu kashanki – how are you?).

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From the beautiful mountains and valley, we headed north to the jungle to spend a few days in Puerto Alegria where we made a trip to the mouth of the Amazon River, visited Belen and spent a lot of time playing with the Girasoles boys.

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We returned to Lima for a traditional visit through the city and the group left for their long return trip to Scotland. For me, it is back to Puerto Alegria tomorrow morning for the next week with a group of friends from North Carolina. Billy ends his time with Health Bridges International tomorrow and heads to Kusi on Saturday morning!

– Kate

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Posted in: Peru | Tagged: Dearborn, Ica, Kawai, Kusi, photo, Puerto Alegria

Chloe

Posted on Wednesday, November 17, 2010 Leave a Comment

Over the past few months, I have been taking care of three little girls after school until their parents come home from work. Usually, it’s a couple hours each day, meeting them at the bus, doing homework, getting snacks, and taking them to various activities like gymnastics, soccer, and Wednesday night church events.

Every once in a while, when they have school vacation, I stay with them all day, planning activities, making lunches, and everything else.

This week, the Dearborn Schools have a particularly unusual schedule, with a half day on Monday, and a full day on Friday. That’s right, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, there is no school.

Since the two older sisters (7 and 9) were away on a business trip with their father to Chicago, it was just the little one and I today.

We had quite a busy day, starting with riding bikes the few blocks from their house to the church, a visit to the park, many games of chess & checkers, another trip to the park with the dog, games of bingo, and the library.

During the second trip to the nearby park, we walked along the sizeable river that runs through the lower portion.

As we walked towards the playground, a flock of ducks floated on by down the river. The little 5 year old I was with was quickly mesmerized. We spent a good twenty minutes watching and talking about the ducks.

After a few minutes of silence, and watching the ducks go up and down the river, I heard:

“I wish I was a duck.”

I asked if I understood her correctly, and she said again, “I wish I was a duck. I like how they just swim up and down all day, playing in the water. They are going on field trips!”

I started to think about how life would be if we were ducks. Were they watching us, standing on the bank of the river, thinking “I wish I was a person. They have fun.” After my runaway thoughts caught back up with me, the little 5 year old was tugging on my jacket, and said “let’s go, the ducks can’t play on the playground.”

I guess it’s better to be a person.

Posted in: General | Tagged: Chloe, Dearborn, ducks, Michigan, park, photo

David

Posted on Tuesday, November 16, 2010 Leave a Comment

I attended a funeral for a well-loved man of my congregation in Dearborn earlier this week.

On the back of the memorial service bulletin, there was a creed, which happened to be the mantra that this man tried to live by. A simple Google search showed that this is an excerpt from Forest Witcraft’s poem, “Within My Power” and is commonly used to recognize teachers.

“One hundred years from now, it will not matter what kind of car I drove, what house I lived in, how much was in my bank account, nor what my clothes looked like. But the world may be a better place because I was important in the life of a child.”

In my opinion, this man did not just try to live by these words, but outright succeeded in all efforts. He wasn’t a teacher in the traditional sense, he worked for Ford Motor Company for 31 years and then devoted his retirement to serving his community through being an active member and leader in Kiwanis, advisor to the Dearborn High Key Club (Kiwanis Educates Youth), actively served within our congregation at First Dearborn as well as many other things.

As I prepare to begin a full-time ministry with abandoned children in Peru (this is even applicable here in Dearborn as I serve as the Interim Student Ministries Director within my congregation!), this philosophy is an important thing to remember. In this world we live in that is filled with wants, desires, and “needs” (different from the true needs), it is very easy to get caught up in that. The most important thing we can do is build positive relationships with the generations to follow and be important in their life.

Posted in: General | Tagged: Dearborn, quote

Ica Candy Trip

Posted on Saturday, July 17, 2010 Leave a Comment

As a sequel to the Mala Trip video my brother Randy made in 2008, here is the 2010 Ica version, starring the youngest members of the Dearborn team, Sarah, Brandon and Griffin.

In this video, Sarah, Brandon and Griffin take you on a ride through Ica to a market where they purchase various Peruvian candy bars to share with the 33 boys living in the abandoned boys home at Girasoles Ica and the children of First Presbyterian Dearborn.

Posted in: Peru | Tagged: Dearborn, Girasoles, Ica, Peru, Scripture Union, video

2 Days in Lima

Posted on Friday, June 25, 2010 Leave a Comment

World Cup, originally uploaded by katherinebruder.

After a week in the jungle at Puerto Alegria with my own team from Dearborn, we returned to Lima for a few days – back into the city, “back into civilization” as I heard one member of the team say. It was back to warm showers, soft mattresses, television, electricity, food choices and other people! To go from the little village of Puerto Alegria with its 100 or so residents (45 of which live at the SU home for abandoned boys) to a city of 8 million was quite a change.

We had originally planned on returning to Lima on the 5:50pm flight from Iquitos, but a few days earlier, I received word that our flight had been cancelled and we were rebooked to leave Iquitos at 11:30am. This cut our stay at the house by a few hours, but allowed us to spend a considerable amount of time in Miraflores, one of the nicest districts of Lima, which is something we have never been able to do in the 10 years the team has been coming to Peru.

Today, we spent the day doing the usual Lima things – tour of a church with catacombs, a walk through Lima’s downtown pedestrian street, a few hours wandering in the indian market, and the traditional pollo a la brasa dinner at Pardo’s. Unlike previous years where we have left dinner and proceeded directly to the airport or headed back to Kawai (another SU property and home for abandoned boys), we spent another night in a Miraflores hotel, before heading south to Ica the next morning.

In the photo above, Griffin and Brandon are enjoying the “World Cup Fan Fest” in the Plaza de Armas in downtown Lima.

Posted in: Peru | Tagged: Dearborn, Girasoles, Iquitos, Kawai, Lima, Miraflores, Peru, photo, Puerto Alegria, Scripture Union
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A couple weeks ago it was announced that the entir A couple weeks ago it was announced that the entire country of Peru would go back into a mandatory quarantine from April 1-4 over Semana Santa. Semana Santa (specifically Thursday through Sunday of Holy Week) here is an immensely popular long weekend for traveling, visiting the beach or at minimum spending time with the extended family and friends since almost everybody has the holidays off. It’s the last hurrah as the summer winds down and the new school year begins. So for these 4 days we’re not allowed to leave our homes unless it is to go to the grocery store or pharmacy, and then it is just 1 person per family that is allowed to go. Knowing that we wouldn’t be able to go outside, earlier this week we had a very impromptu picnic in the trunk of our car at the beach while we watched the sun set over the Pacific Ocean. While these 4 days are different than how we would have liked to spend the weekend, we are deeply grateful for a safe home, for our health and for the ability to spend time as a family. #littlewilliamnoah
Today we headed out to Cieneguilla to go for a hik Today we headed out to Cieneguilla to go for a hike along the Río Lurin, add more outside hours to our challenge and simply enjoy the blue sky and warm weather before summer ends here south of the Equator☀️ We also had lunch with dear friends and ended the day with some well deserved ice cream ☺️ #littlewilliamnoah
After a year of being at home throughout various l After a year of being at home throughout various levels of quarantine (including a full quarantine for 108 days for adults and even longer for Will), when restrictions eased again at the beginning of March we headed 3 hours south to Paracas for a few days of fresh air, sun, water and family time - and as a bonus, we added 44 hours to our #1000hoursoutside goal 🐟🌴☀️🚤 #littlewilliamnoah
Summer break is over and a new school year has beg Summer break is over and a new school year has begun! Unfortunately it sounds like it will be another year of virtual preschool but we’re excited to see what he learns and how he grows this year in Miss Angie’s class! #littlewilliamnoah
Happy fourth birthday to our little Will! You have Happy fourth birthday to our little Will! You have made our world a whole lot sweeter and you are our greatest adventure 🤍 We love you forever! #littlewilliamnoah
Last night the Peruvian president announced a two- Last night the Peruvian president announced a two-week lockdown covering 1/3 of the country, including Lima, amid a significant rise in COVID-19 cases here. The new lockdown will run from January 31 through February 14. New restrictions include the closure of all non-essential shops (only pharmacies, grocery stores/bodegas/markets and banks are allowed to be open) and a ban on domestic air and land travel. The ban on flights coming from Europe (and now Brazil) is extended. As of right now, the border remains open to all other international flights. Only 1 person is allowed to go grocery shopping at a time, and we are no longer allowed to use our personal cars. We also are only allowed outside for 1 hour per day for exercise/mental health, and should be at home the remainder of the time. 

We are experiencing a second wave of infections and with the variants, it sounds like there will be more positive cases this time than we had a year ago during our first quarantine. Experts are predicting that we will not hit our peak until April. According to Johns Hopkins University, Peru has reported more than one million cases and about 40,000 deaths related to COVID-19. 

This evening Will and I went for a walk through our neighborhood to squeeze in a little more outside time before Sunday when it will become harder to complete our 1000 hours outside. 

It’s difficult knowing we have to go back into a lockdown, but we are thankful for our health and that we have a safe place to quarantine at home. Join us in praying for the country of Peru and that these measures taken will make a positive impact on the pandemic here. 

#littlewilliamnoah
Working towards spending #1000hoursoutside and put Working towards spending #1000hoursoutside and putting many kilometers on Will’s scooter and bike this year 🚴‍♂️🛴#littlewilliamnoah @1000hoursoutside
To end what has been a long, unexpected year we di To end what has been a long, unexpected year we did a little staycation at a hotel in Lima. We walked around a new neighborhood, had a picnic in the park, watched movies, studied the city from above, spent time swimming in the pool and watched fireworks being set off over the city of Lima as the clock struck midnight and we entered the new year. 

While 2020 may not have been what we envisioned it would be a year ago, I am thankful for my little family, our health and the opportunities we have had this year. 

May 2021 be filled with adventure, laughter and hopefully being able to see family again! ✈️ #littlewilliamnoah
It was a quiet Christmas at home for the 3 of us i It was a quiet Christmas at home for the 3 of us in Lima this year but we enjoyed a slow 2 days, lots of good food (including, per Will’s request, funfetti cupcakes for Baby Jesus’ birthday), Zoom calls with family and time together. 

(Also don’t let the first gift your child opens to be a costume of one of their favorite characters unless you want all of your photos of the child to be in that costume 🤦🏻‍♀️) #littlewilliamnoah
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