Kusi

SU Background

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Here’s a little background information about the non-profit I am working with while in Peru. The majority of my time is spent within the Programa Girasoles abandoned boys program, working as a translator and guide for visiting work teams from the United States and United Kingdom.

SU Background

Scripture Union is involved in six different ministries in Peru:

– the publication of Bible reading aids, working with church leaders
– work with the hearing impaired, penetrating families who see their children as God’s curse
– a growing schools work, where staff teach Christian values in public schools
– a full camping program for children on the Pacific coast, high in the Andes and deep in the jungle
– an innovative medical outreach located in the Amazon Basin
– a unique ministry to abandoned boys, known as Programa Girasoles, where 40 abandoned boys live with a family in a Casa Girasoles.

In addition, to these six ministries, Scripture Union has 6 worksites available to work teams from all over the world. Each site is home to a Casa Girasoles (a home for abandoned boys), and has plenty of work to do.

Scripture Union Sites

Kawai
Started in 1978, Kawai is the Pacific beach campsite and home for abandoned boys, located approximately 1.5 hours south of Lima.

In Kawai, SU is building beach condos to rent as part of their income generating projects, which enable the organization to become more self-supporting. At present, Scripture Union covers 72% of its budget through income generating projects.

Groups that visit Kawai interact with the 30 boys and their house parents, Raul and Rosa, and since they visit during the winter, they have full run of the campsite.

Kimo
To reach this high jungle campsite, groups travel 8 hours by bus from the desert over the Andes (at approximately 16,000 ft.) and down to the mountainous jungle area.

To reach Kimo, a hand pulled cable car shuttles people across the torrent Chanchamayo River, 6-8 people at a time. Cabins built with palm leaf roofs make the perfect place to rest. There is a lake to swim in, trails that lead to waterfalls, and plenty of work to be done. A new home for abandoned boys is being built in Kimo, which is expected to be completed during 2010. Currently, two of our older boys from Puerto Alegria live in Kimo, where they have trained as carpenters and are now pursuing other studies in town.

Kusi (Quechua for Joy)
Kusi is nestled high in the Peruvian Andes nearby the town of Yungay, a 9 hour bus ride from Lima.

Currently, Scripture Union has been given the privilege of supervising an elementary school for over 100 children from the nearby area. One of its kind, this school is available for the poorer families of the area and is financed by the Peruvian government, but administered by SU Peru. Groups have the opportunity to visit the school and lead songs and games one morning they are in Kusi.

There are currently 43 boys living in the Casa Girasoles with the house parents Angel and his wife Rosa.

Work teams make adobe bricks to help create the little village of Kusi. Plans have been made to include a city square with all the necessary buildings around it – chapel, city hall, school, stores and homes.

Puerto Alegria (Port of Happiness)
Our Amazon site is an hour away from Iquitos in the Amazon River basin. Work teams stay in a dormitory setting with a bunk bed in each room. The 42 boys who live in Puerto Alegria eat their meals with teams, and go to school in the mornings just a few hundred yards away.

Puerto Alegria is the most rustic site still since there is no electricity. There is, however, a generator and, therefore, you have lights in the evenings when needed. The Casa Girasoles house parents are Gene and Patty.

In Puerto Alegria, we are building a new campsite for schools and churches and to generate money for the program. It is all on the same property where the teams stay.

Each week a day is arranged to travel into Iquitos where Scripture Union has a medical clinic and an outreach program for semi-abandoned boys. Work teams visit the market area of Belen and see poverty in a way that most visitors have never seen.

Valle Sagrado (Cusco)
Live the splendor of the Sacred Valley and Machu Picchu, recently voted one of seven modern wonders of the world.

Days are spent building the Casa Girasoles Valle Sagrado which is located 1 hour outside of Cusco, and 15 minutes from Urubamba. Work teams help make adobe bricks to expand the home. There are 40 boys at the Casa Girasoles, and the house parents are Hector and Maritza,

Many teams spend a day traveling through the Sacred Valley on a one-of-a-kind train ride to the lost city of the Incas. The very core of Scripture Union and the very center of the Inca Empire (Cusco means navel or center of the universe) join hands in the wonderfully alive and remote southern Andes to bring an experience of a lifetime.

Ica
Inaugurated in January 2008 as the Casa Girasoles Ica, this site is located in the desert city of Ica, approximately 4 hours south of Lima. Work teams stay on site with the 42 boys that live at the home. The house parents in Ica are Augusto and Nancy.

Since Ica is located in the desert, there is very little water for cooking, drinking and cleaning. One afternoon during a week, work teams distribute water to the surrounding areas. For 80 soles, teams purchase 1000 liters of water that can help many families that can’t afford to purchase clean water.

Lima (Chosica)
At the heart of the entire program is our Centro Girasoles that is located in Lima’s downtown historical district. At the end of July, this program along with the abandoned boys and offices will be moved to a location 45 minutes outside of the city of Lima in Chosica.

Kusi, where joy is found

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Last Friday night I finally made it to the Casa Girasoles Kusi home, which is located approximately 9 hours northeast of Lima. I’m currently here with a team from Huntsville, Alabama – a work team I translated for last summer too. I was happy to see some familiar faces as they exited customs, and have enjoyed getting to know the new members.

Friday we made the long, but absolutely beautiful trek from Lima to Kusi. Billy and I were lucky to have seats in the first row so we were able to look out the front bus windows at the majestic Andes mountains as we followed the winding road. To reach Kusi from Lima, we traveled north on the Panamerican Highway (the same highway that travels from Alaska to Chile) along the Pacific Ocean, and then turned east and climbed high into the mountains, finally reaching an altitude where we could see snow. Words simply cannot describe this trip.

Nor can words describe the time I’ve spent here in Kusi. In Peru, there are two national languages, Spanish and Quechua. Spanish was brought over in the 1400s by the Spaniards, while Quechua is one of the many indigenous languages. The name Kusi comes from the Quechua word for joy, which is appropriately used to describe this home.

The past few days it has been great to see the same boys from previous years. With all the sites, I feel I have the strongest connection with the formerly abandoned boys of Kusi. Many of them call me hermanita (sister), la fefa (the boss of the groups, with the Andean accent), among many other names. I immediately felt back at home in the house parents, Rosa and Angel’s house and with the now 43 formerly abandoned boys.

I’ll be here in Kusi until Friday, where I’ll take the Alabama group to Lima for a few days, and then return to this wonderful place.

12 Hours

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12 hours later, and I finally made it to Peru last night.

I’m currently waiting with Billy (a good friend from Michigan who is currently living here in Lima) and Scott, another translator from Virgina, for a work team from Huntsville, Alabama, to head up to Kusi. We’ll spend the night in the Lima center tonight and then make the 9 hour trek by public bus to Kusi – one of my most favorite sites.

Just a side note, on my flight from Atlanta to Lima, I sat next to the mayor of Mala, which is the small town just 2km outside of Kawai. (Kawai is a Scripture Union campsite located 1.5 hours south of Lima). Jose, the alcalde, shared his information with me and invited me to tea and coffee the next time I am in Kawai.

8 days

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te amo Perú, originally uploaded by katherinebruder.

Just a short 8 days until I jet off to the far away lands of Peru again.

Here’s a quick run down of my tentative Peruvian itinerary.

May 27: Arrive
May 28 – June 13: Kusi
June 14 – 17: Lima
June 18 – 25 : Cusco
June 26 – 27 : Lima / Kawai
June 28 – July 4 : Ica
July 5 – August 16 : Iquitos (Puerto Alegria)
August 16 – 21 : Ica and/or Kusi

I stress that this is a tentative itinerary because the last time I spent a few months in Peru, the original schedule was completely different than what I actually did. Nothing is ever set in stone, and quite frankly, I have had schedule changes right up to the very last minute and even after going along with previous plans.

Even though I expect this itinerary to change, I’m pretty happy with the way it stands right now.

End of a Summer

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A lot has happened since my last update, so I will give you brief things that I have done in the past month.

During mid-August, I said goodbye to my last work team and to the boys at the Casa Girasoles in Kusi (which is the little “city” that I wrote about in the last two emails). From Kusi, I traveled north to Trujillo (which is 9 hours north of Lima on the Pan-American Highway) to work in the schools program. This means, I accompanied Lupe with her to the various schools in the area that Scripture Union is working with to teach values to the children. By law, every child should receive at least 1 hour of values education per week, but at many schools it is either not being taught or the teachers do not do an excellent job with it, so Scripture Union has a program to send volunteers into the classrooms to teach them values such as respect, integrity, loyalty, honesty etc through skits, songs, games – pretty much anything they can come up with.

After spending just a short week in Trujillo, Ciudad de Dios and Chiclayo, I returned to Lima to extend my 90-day visa, so I could remain in the country 1 more month. While in Lima, I spent some time working with the families of my two “bosses” and enjoying some down time in the capital city. Saturday of my “free week” was filled with a conference for all of the SU workers in Peru (the Chosica retreat I wrote about earlier).

That Saturday night, I returned to the Lima airport for one of the last times, to pick up my mother for a two week vacation through Peru! For two weeks, we traveled the country by bus and plane, visiting friends we have down here and seeing some sites we just never were able to visit in previous years. We spent the first few days at the Casa Girasoles Ica, visiting the boys and family, teaching English and helping out with day-to-day activities. After Ica, we headed north to the Casa Girasoles Kusi, where we stayed with the house parents and again, helped out with the 28 boys that live there. We took them all on a field trip to the pool and spent time just hanging out with some pretty cool kids. After Kusi, we headed back down south to the majestic Cusco where we spent a few days in the old colonial city. We finally made it to Machu Picchu and even ended up running into Amanda Abramczyk (a fellow Alma alum) on the Plaza de Armas in Cusco.

We spent the past two days in Lima, wrapping up last minute things with my internship, saying goodbyes and getting ready to return to the States. As I am writing this, we are sitting in the Lima airport, waiting to board our red eye flight to Atlanta, putting us into Detroit around midday tomorrow, Sunday.

I’m sad to be leaving a place that has become so familiar and a place with many friends and family, but I know that it is just a short 9 months before I am able to return again.