Machu Picchu

January, part 1

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January was a busy and big month for us here in Lima.

After spending a lazy New Years with a good friend at my apartment in Lima, Billy and I headed northeast again to Kusi. JUst a week after celebrating Christmas with the boys at our Girasoles home in Kusi, we were heading back through the curvy mountain roads to celebrate at graduation party for 5 of the boys.

Alex, Fredy and Rolando were the three high school graduates and we were their padrinos or mentors.

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Before this trip, Billy and I wanted to do something special for the boys and to help get them ready for their graduation party at school. We invited the three boys came to Lima during a brief downtime in November and spent a couple days helping them get all outfitted with a new suit, shirt, tie, socks, shoes, and belt. We went to Gamarra (the garment district in Lima) to get everything they would need.

Yes, this store is called “makeover”.
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During a trip to a department store, we saw an actor from a Peruvian telenovela, Al Fondo Hay Sitio.
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In addition to the three high school graduates, the party was also for Ronald (who finished elementary school) and Andres (who graduated from preschool), seen here.

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While the trip was very brief, it was great to be a part of the 5 boys’ party and to celebrate in their accomplishments over the past years.

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A day after we returned from Kusi, my best friend and maid of honor, Katie, arrived in Lima. She had been planning a trip to visit me here in Peru for the past 6 months and it ended up coinciding with our wedding at the end of her trip. We started her time off here in Peru with a few days in Ica and a day trip to nearby Nasca to see the ancient Nasca lines.

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To end our few days in Ica, we took the boys from the home to the beach near Paracas. They loved the water and the afternoon at the beach. Some of the boys even turned Sabino’s daughters into sand mermaids.
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After Ica, Katie and I headed south for the requisite trip to Cusco and Machu Picchu. We spent a few days in the colonial city of Cusco and then a day at Machu Picchu and another in the Sacred Valley. It was a great time to spend with a great friend and of course beautiful scenery.

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Part 2 to come soon… 🙂

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.

A Return from Kimo and an upcoming trip to Cusco

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Last Wednesday night, I and three other interns met a team from Gainesville, Georgia at the Lima airport to take them up to one of SU’s campsites in the jungle, Kimo. Our schedule was temporarily delayed due to a national strike, which meant that many of the roads in the mountains would be blocked and traffic would not be allowed to pass. Because of this, the team was re-routed to Kawai (which is about 90km south of Lima, and where I had worked a few times in the past weeks). I was happy about the change in plans because it gave me the opportunity to return to Kawai and to see the boys that live in the Casa Girasoles one more time. Many of the boys asked about my team from Dearborn, wondering if they were still in Peru. Sadly, I had to say that they had returned home to the States.

After the quick stop off in Kawai, we boarded a bus to make the long trip up to Kimo. Kimo is located near the small town of La Merced, in the Chanchamayo region. To reach Kimo, one must cross a mountain range at 12,000ft and then go all the way down to 2,000ft above sea level. Needless to say, the ride is quite precarious in some spots, but also quite beautiful.

Once we arrived in Kimo, it was time to cross the river to get to the campsite. The river crossing is not made by a driving across a bridge, but rather, by riding across in the huaro (cable car) and then a long hike up the mountain to the campsite. We arrived at night, so it was already dark and being in the middle of nowhere in the jungle, there were no streetlights or any electric lighting. The night was illuminated by hundreds of stars and a full moon, which was quite a sight to see.

Saturday was spent at the work site. Kimo has been a part of Scripture Union for over 30 years (and has quite an interesting history, including being taken over by the Shining Path at one point), but has never had it’s own Casa Girasoles for abandoned boys. This year, the team from Georgia was starting the construction for a home for boys that hopefully will be opened in January 2010. Construction in the jungle (and Peru in general) is quite a feat and interesting to watch.

Today, one of the other interns and I left the group in Kimo (in good hands with our jefe, boss) to return to Lima. Since it was just the two of us, we made the long journey by public transportation (the Peruvian equivalent to Greyhound). Despite the length of the trip (between 9-10 hours), it only cost 20 soles, which is approximately $7.

Tomorrow, I meet a team from the UK to take them down south to Cusco to work on the Casa Girasoles home there. This will be my first time in Cusco, and if everything works out right, next Saturday I will be at Machu Picchu.

On a side note, Peruvians are all about their heritage and patriotism to the country. This year, Peru will celebrate 187 years of freedom from Spain on July 28th, their independence day. Despite the fact that it isn’t for a few more weeks, many businesses and people have already began to decorate with flags and anything red & white they can find. In fact, I started to notice decorations at the airport, around Lima and street vendors selling Peruvian flags on almost every corner at the beginning of the month. It will be interesting to see what actually happens on the big day.