Last weekend we headed south to Ica for a couple days before our last 3 teams of the year.
We weren’t going with a group so it was a weekend to visit the boys and staff at the home. Billy hadn’t been to Ica since the end of May and I was only there a couple times this summer.
About two weeks ago, our final group for the summer returned home and life here went back to normal.
Thankfully, this summer there were no major health issues with any of the volunteers, weather cooperated and domestic planes were almost always on time to depart and arrive and there weren’t road strikes that prevented travel — well there was one group that left Lima at 8am to go to Kusi and didn’t arrive until 4am the following day. A trip that takes about 9 hours took them almost 20, but there was no danger, just a lot of waiting.
Last week I spent a week at our Girasoles home in Ica with a new group from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. There were 10 people in the group and they were all new to Peru and to Scripture Union. I enjoy traveling with groups that have been here before, but there is something about a completely new-to-Peru group. Everything is new and the trip has a different feel to it. I have been to Ica dozens of times and know the city well, but when I travel with a group who has never been before it is as if we are all experiencing it for the first time together.
The group had a few different work projects to complete during the week, starting with moving a large pile of bricks from where they had been dropped off at the front of the property to the back where the bricks would be used.
It’s summer volunteer season again!
Last week, Billy and I kicked off the summer season with a few different groups and have already made a few trips. This year, we have 17 volunteer groups coming to support our Girasoles boys homes from June to August. It will be a busy few months and with the exception of 1 group, Billy and I will be traveling apart, each with our own teams.
Billy has spent the last two weeks traveling to Kusi and Cusco with a Scottish school group, and will finish their time here with a trip to Puerto Alegria. He’s had quite the exciting trip with this group, from one of the volunteers spraining her ankle and requiring a cast, to being able to translate testimonies from a few of our older Girasoles boys from Kusi.
Last night, I returned from spending the week in the jungle at Puerto Alegria with a group of volunteers from North and South Carolina. The last time I was at the home was November 2012 and it wasn’t a very long visit, so I was anxious to return and see the familiar faces of the boys living at the home there – like Alexis…
… and Ericson and Lenín.
The volunteers had prepared a 2-day vacation Bible school program to share with the Girasoles and also in two different schools in Iquitos. The week was mostly spent at the home, spending time with the boys and spending 2 mornings visiting 2 different schools in the city. They were able to share their program with a first, third, fifth and sixth grade classes.
One of the women on the team owns a salon in the US and offered to give all 42 of the boys haircuts. The youngest boy at the house, Job Neber (6) was not interested in getting his hair cut but eventually caved once he saw it wasn’t going to be painful.
We ended their week in Peru with a day in Lima to see a few sites and spend some time at Señales – the Scripture Union ministry to the deaf. We try to take most of our volunteers to Señales on their last day in Peru, but very few have the opportunity to spend a few hours at the center. Since this group had a long day and a late return flight to the United States, we were able to spend almost 3 hours with the deaf students and teachers at the program.
After introductions and a little background about the deaf ministry, the group was able to share an abbreviated part of their VBS program with the students before we all had lunch together.
For me, the visit at the deaf center was a great way to end the week and I wish we could spend this much time there with more of our groups. The students were genuinely interested in the group and asked a lot of questions about what they during the trip and where they were from. While we had a language barrier between English, Spanish and Peruvian Sign Language (everything was taken from English, to Spanish and then finally to signs and vice versa), it did not matter to either group. Communication happened and ideas were shared.
Early this morning Billy headed to Puerto Alegria for the final leg of his Scottish school group’s trip and tonight I board an overnight bus to Kusi, to meet the group from my home church in Michigan.
Pray for us these next few months, we’ll be covering a lot of kilometers, living out of suitcases, apart from each other and busy with long days. Pray that we remain safe and healthy, but also take time to connect with the familiar faces we will see along the way. Pray that our time at each home will help the Girasoles grow and that despite being tired from travel, our ministry to these boys and volunteers will be meaningful.
– Kate
