Iquitos

2 Days in Lima

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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.

Dearborn Comes to the Jungle

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This past week, I have been joined by my own friends and family from First Presbyterian in Dearborn, Michigan.

Because of the flooding in the Cusco/Sacred Valley region earlier this year, the original plans for the 2010 trip had to be changed. Instead of spending a week again at the Girasoles home in the Sacred Valley, the team was rerouted to the jungle city of Iquitos and our Girasoles home at Puerto Alegria.

This was the first time that the group had ventured north to the jungle, and I was extremely excited to show them the place I had spent a few months at during 2009, and introduce them to the people I had come to work with.

While the heat, humidity and large bugs are not what the group was accustomed to dealing with, the week went smoothly and provided a new experience, completely different than anything they had ever seen or done in their 11 years of trips Peru.

Thursday we head to Lima to spend a few days in the city, before heading south to the desert city, Ica.

Since photos are much better than words, and my mother brought me a new camera lens, here are some photos from the week in Puerto Alegria.

Replacing the screens of the dining room.
team_work

Sarah sanding a piece of the wood trim.
sarah_sanding

My brother, Randy, on the boat to Iquitos.
randy_boat

Markers for an art project.
markers

Hox, one of the older boys at Puerto Alegria.
hox_hat

Alvaro (7) and Luis (5), two of the younger boys at Puerto Alegria.
alvaro_luis

Alvaro and Luis playing with bubbles.
alvaro_bubbles1

Emily and Luis at Quistococha.
emily_luis

Just playing around with the new lens, a shot of the team sitting on the balcony of the dining room.
team_leaves

New Shoes and the World Cup

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It was an exciting week with the Not Forgotten group from Alabama, the boys each received a new pair of tennis shoes and we went into Iquitos to see one of the first 2010 World Cup games, France-Uruguay. Here are some photos from the week. More can be found at Flickr.


Marcelo, originally uploaded by katherinebruder.

Marcelo with his new Tigre tennis shoes.


Oriel, originally uploaded by katherinebruder.

Oriel, one of the youngest boys at Puerto Alegria.


Victor & Marcelo, originally uploaded by katherinebruder.

Victor and Marcelo examining the lens on my Nikon.


Stiver, originally uploaded by katherinebruder.

Stiver, one of the older boys at the home, watching the France-Uruguay World Cup game at a restaurant in Iquitos.


Segundo, originally uploaded by katherinebruder.

Segundo, one of the twins at Puerto Alegria, intently watching the World Cup game.


Jherry & Luis, originally uploaded by katherinebruder.

Jherry, the educator, helping Luis with his lunch.


Xavier, originally uploaded by katherinebruder.

Xavier enjoying his pollo a la brasa in Iquitos.

This Friday my next work team arrives in Iquitos/Puerto Alegria. I am particularly excited for this group since they friends and family from my home church in Dearborn. While many are “Peru veterans,” this will be their first time in the jungle at Puerto Alegria and I’m looking forward to showing them the place I have been working.

Conjuntivitis Epidemic

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Life is always different when you live with 40+ boys and 10 support staff.

Things take longer to do, require a little more planning, and not to mention – it is always an adventure, there is always something going on, somebody to talk to, somebody to have fun with.

A large group setting works both ways. In almost every way it is a lot of fun, like I said, there is always something going on. But, when it comes to illnesses, it is not pleasant.

A few days before the group arrived, I noticed a few of the boys were rubbing their eyes. The next day, the same three boys came to breakfast with blood red eyes, like they had been crying all night. Unfortunately for the rest of us, this was not the case – they had contracted pink eye, conjuntivitis.

It was just 2 days before the small group of 3 infected boys turned into almost every boy in the house, and it did not stop there. A day later, I got it in my right eye, along with many others from the Not Forgotten team. For the next few days, we were constantly putting drops in our eyes, walking around with blurred vision and just looking like a complete mess.

Thankfully, by the time the team left this morning, almost everybody has gotten over the infection.

Mery, the house mother, was talking to me yesterday with her little 2 year old son, Timoteo, and she mentioned that she thinks he might have varicela (chicken pox). It is not looking like he has it, but thank God I already did!

World Cup Fever

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The 2010 World Cup began today and it has taken Peru by storm. Despite Peru will not be represented in this year’s competition, fútbol is fútbol regardless of who is playing (just as long as it isn’t your team’s arch-rival; Alianza and U in Lima, Real Madrid and Barça in Spain, the list goes on).

During the time I spent in Lima, I saw countdown clocks til the first game, advertisements every commercial break, posters all over the city, and entire sections of department stores like Saga Falabella converted to World Cup fever. Even Wong, one of the grocery stores has promotional posters and life-size cutouts of soccer players hanging from the ceiling.

So, despite being away from the city and outside the reach of traditional electricity from Iquitos, I doubt I’ll miss very many of the games.

Case in point, we went into Iquitos today with all 40 boys to see one of the first games – Uruguay vs. France. Unfortunately it was not a very spectacular game, neither team scored a goal, but it was fun to go to a restaurant and watch the game, and just to be away from the house for a bit.

Hopefully we will be able to watch a few more games over the next month!

Here’s a commercial that I see almost every time I walk past a television.