While in Kusi, we spent one of our days at the local pool. Everybody loaded up in a bus with swim gear, sunscreen, soccer balls and of course, lunch (which no surprise was rice, potatoes and chicken) to enjoy the beautiful sunny day at the pool.
Here’s a video of the boys going down (and back up) the slide.
More videos from Kusi are on Vimeo.
After not being too satisfied with the videos I had recorded on my little Canon point-and-shoot camera, I decided to upgrade my video recording capabilities and buy the new Flip MinoHD to record short videos from various trips – most specifically, all the adorable and hilarious things the Girasoles do. Thanks to Amazon.com and their quick shipping, I was able to take my new camera with me over the holidays and record.
Here are three of my favorite videos, two from Ica and the third from Kusi.
After a long day of adventures, these boys from Girasoles Ica were exhausted and ended up falling asleep at the dinner table. Those that didn’t wake up on their own, were carried to bed by Julio, the educator of the home. Notice the boy seen at 23 seconds into the clip that is asleep and still eating!
Anything with Sanchez makes my top ten, and as you can see in this video, he is quite a busy and energetic kid. If he stops running around for just 2 minutes, he quickly falls asleep (as seen by the previous video). Here you can see Sanchez being silly and sharing a little love with Billy while Pampachay practices in the background.
And finally, Kusi. One of the things we brought down to play with the boys was the game, Rummikub. We first introduced this game to the boys in Ica when we were there in June, but I think the meaning and rules of the game were lost on many of the boys. Nevertheless, it was included in our suitcases for Kusi. Maybe instructions were more clear this time, or they just understood better. In this video, Eloy, Cococho and Eli are playing together. Cococho (in the blue shirt) somewhat understood, Eloy (in orange) was getting the hang of it, but Eli (in the blue Southlake sweatshirt), was an expert! If this was chess, he would be in candidate master territory.
This year I was given one of my Christmas presents a little early, and it is probably the best gift I have received. Since I love to travel, explore, and basically, leave Michigan, a safe bet for presents is something to do with packing, traveling, frequent flying, suitcases, camera, etc. My brother, who knows this all too well, gave me a set of travel speakers that I can use on my computer and iPod while on the road.
If that was my “best gift ever, ” this would be a short post and most likely not named “Peruvian Christmas.” If you haven’t figured it out, I was given a plane ticket to return to Peru for the holidays, 12 days with good friends, the Girasoles and the beautiful sunny countryside – all accompanied by my mother and brother.
We leave tomorrow morning, yes on Christmas Day, and will spend 5 days in Ica, 4 days in Kusi (including New Years Eve) and the final day in Lima.
So as of tomorrow night, I’ll be back in one of my favorite places.
(Videos, photos and stories will be posted upon my return.)
Many of my work teams and readers asked for the songs and videos of the various choreographies that the boys in Kusi and Puerto Alegria do with the work teams that visit. As promised, I have posted the mp3 files of the songs and links to the videos on Vimeo (where you can download them if desired).
You can now find all of this here on my site.
To the work teams, thank you for the construction work you did and the time you spent with the Girasoles this summer. Hopefully we’ll see you in 2010!
