Kawai

Girasoles Kawai

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Over the past few years, I haven’t spent much time at our home for abandoned boys in Kawai. Since there isn’t any new construction going on on the property, work teams don’t spend a week there, and if they do stop at Kawai, they typically don’t spend more than a day or two. I think last time I spent a considerable amount of time in Kawai was my first time volunteering as an intern in 2008.

Lots of things can change over 4 years, the most noticeable being the boys living at Girasoles. Without spending time at the house, it is hard to develop relationships and get to know more about the Girasoles boys than just their name and maybe age.

Last week I was able to spend some quality time in with Girasoles Kawai and a group from New York City. The group had activities planned for the 35 boys for morning, afternoon and evening, since the boys were still on vacation from school making it a different than the typical work team experience which involves a construction/maintenance project.

But, instead of telling you about the week, I’ll let my photographs show you what I did…

We painted and colored…

…spent time with best friends (Ricardo and Jonathan).

…played Apples to Apples (or, better said Manzanas con Manzanas)

…made silly faces and smiled for the camera.

…went to the Huachipa Zoo

…went to the movies in Asia

… we had a soup for dinner with really loooong noodles and chopsticks.

… And, we made new friends. (with Gonzalo)

 

 

Also while in Kawai, I spent some time with Sabino, our schools worker for the area, and his two little girls. Here are a couple photographs I took of his beautiful daughters.

Summer Camp

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It’s summer in Lima.

You might have seen my numerous tweets about sunny days in Lima, or the beautifully blue sky reflected in Facebook photos. While students in the States are in the middle of their second semester, Peruvian schools have just a few more weeks of summer vacation and people are enjoying the hot, sunny weather to go to the beach. And with summer vacation in full force, the Scripture Union camping ministry has been busy putting on weekend and 4-day camps at Kawai.

Earlier this week, I was able to help with a summer camp organized by Carmen, one of our schools workers in Lima. During the school year, she goes into classrooms and leads values education discussions with students – teaching them values such as honesty, respect, and integrity through Bible stories, skits, songs and activities. This ministry is then complemented by camping program during the summer months.

In addition to visiting various classrooms, Carmen also works with an organization called Aldeas Infantiles SOS, bringing values education to the children and teens that are part of their program. Similar to our Girasoles abandoned boys ministry, Aldeas SOS works with disadvantaged families and operates homes around Peru (and the world) providing a home life for children who for certain circumstances cannot live with their own family. This past week, Carmen hosted a camp in Kawai for the teens she works with at Aldeas SOS.

There were 27 campers and 6 guias (guides) helping lead the camp. Since this was my first Scripture Union camp, I didn’t have my own campers, but rather was entrusted with the task of documenting the activities and events of the 4 days with my camera and video camera so each camper could receive a CD of photographs and videos from the week.

Since Kawai is located right on the Pacific Ocean (our property ends at the public beach) and being summer, the campers wanted to spend as much time as possible in the water, whether it be the beach or the pool. Between trips to the beach or pool, we had time for games, team building activities, and morning and afternoon devotionals. With the exception of 2 campers who I had briefly met over lunch a few months ago, all of the campers were new faces. I spent the 4 days getting to know the girls in the group, sharing a part of my life in Lima and the States and learning a bit about their families and life in Aldeas SOS. Once they discovered I also speak English, I found myself teaching phrases and words here and there.

One of the best activities of the week was the bonfire on the final night of the camp. By this point, I had gotten to know most of the campers and they had bonded within themselves. During the bonfire, we sang songs and listened to a handful of campers and guias share their experiences from the previous days. Listening to the campers share funny stories and “remember when” comments helped realize the importance of the camping ministry. While these and thousands of other students are reached on a weekly basis in school, a camp gives them 4 days of fun, laughter, encounters with God, games, and fellowship with other students their own age.

Here are some of the photos I took during the week.

One of the tents the campers stayed in.

One of Kawai’s beautiful summer sunsets.

The Aldeas SOS campers and guias before heading home.

The Business Trip

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About a month ago while I was scanning my Facebook news feed, I noticed that a few of my friends had mentioned that they were away on “business trips”. I love to travel and the idea of being able to travel with work always enticed me. I know it would be work, but the adventure of going somewhere always sounded great. While reading the wonderful places my friends were jetting off to, like London, San Francisco, Venice and Washington DC, I found myself wanting to trade places with them and go myself. But after a few minutes, I didn’t think much more about it.

A couple nights ago, I returned from spending almost the past two weeks on the road. Starting in Kawai, our property located 88km south of Lima on the Pacific Ocean, I helped a water filtration team from Tennessee install a system on the property. Kawai and I have a long history since it is the location that I visited on my first trip in 2001, and then kept returning to for the 7 years with a group from First Presbyterian. It is a beautiful piece of beach front property with lots of green grass, palm trees and wonderful people. After a few days in Kawai and another couple days in Lima, we boarded a plane to head north to Iquitos and our boys home at Puerto Alegria. The water team had an installation planned for a church in the district of Punchana (just outside Iquitos) and wanted to perform some maintenance on their system at Puerto Alegria. Since the team spoke little Spanish, and part of their program includes teaching about the importance of using clean, purified water and how to properly and effectively wash your hands, I went with them to help teach.

Working with the children a church in Punchana.

The Living Waters team with their install at Kawai.

After spending a couple weeks with the group, it was time to return home. As packed up my suitcase and boarded the plane to Lima, I couldn’t help thinking, “Why would I be so silly and want to trade places with my business traveling friends?!” They get to go to neat places and travel with work, but hey – so do I! They go to cities where they only know work colleagues, stay in impersonal hotels and just work all day. But when I travel with work, I go to work with friends, stay in their homes and not just “work” all day, but get to have fun. Lots of fun.

I get to see people like Jherry, our house father and director of the home in Puerto Alegria.

I get to spend time with people like Wixler, who I have known for many years.

And, I get to take silly photos with silly boys. (Thank you Luis for that photobomb…)

So, even though I’m not going off to the same wonderful places I dreamed of as a child, I’m going to familiar places – to where people know me and I know them; to people who greet me with open arms and to a job that is never completed.

And all of that is just fine with me.

A Stop in Kawai

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On the way to Ica, we were able to stop for a few hours in Kawai – Scripture Union’s beachside property located about an hour south of Lima on the Pan-American Highway.

While we were only at the home for a few hours, it was nice to see some familiar faces from the home, like Paul and Luis Polanco!

Paul


Paul, originally uploaded by katherinebruder.

Luis Polanco, who has grown tremendously over the past year. I first met Luis in 2002 on my second trip to Peru. He was 8 at the time and sort of a little boy for his age. He is now 16 and almost as tall as me! Here is a photo of him from this year, followed by one from just last August.

Luis, June 2010.


Luis Polanco, originally uploaded by katherinebruder.

Luis, August 2009.
luis_polanco

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.