Scripture Union

1 Year

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Today marks one year of living in Peru!

When I think about the past year, I think of the dozens of trips, hundreds of volunteers I have met and countless conversations, hugs and smiles shared. I have spent 202 hours on a bus/plane, and have traveled 20,803 kilometers (12,927 miles) on a total of 25 trips (I kept a record!) and during those trips, I’ve had the opportunity to see familiar faces, meet volunteers and help further the kingdom of God here in Peru.

Looking back on this past year, I can only thank my family, friends and supporters in the States that have stood beside me in this calling. Thank you for the prayers, financial support, phone calls, and emails throughout the last year. I would not be able to do this without your help.

Puerto Alegria Underwater

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I had the pleasure last week of heading north to the Amazon jungle with a group from Philadelphia for a week to see some familiar faces living at the Scripture Union homes in Iquitos and Puerto Alegria, a little village about 45 minutes by boat outside of the city.

As I have mentioned before, Iquitos is the largest city in the Peruvian rainforest and is surrounded by three rivers: the Nanay, Itaya and Amazon. The city can only be reached by airplane or boat, and houses along the three rivers are either built on stilts or floating logs, which rise and fall with the river water levels.

Houses along the Itaya River built on stilts – June 2008

Houses along the Nanay River on floating logs – August 2011

We started our week off by visiting the older boys (13 and up) that are now living at the newly formed Girasoles Iquitos home. While the location is different and some the faces are new, it is always a joy to spent time with kids that I have seen grow up over the past 3 years.

After saying goodbyes, we headed out to Puerto Alegria where we would spend the majority of our time with the little boys (who are 12 and under). Along the way, it was quite evident that the rainy season this year had hit Iquitos much harder than in years past. Boarding the boat that would take us to Puerto Alegria, it was hard not to notice the dozens of tents that had sprung up along the bank as temporary shelters because the occupant’s home was flooded – or more aptly put, completely underwater.

Many houses only had an exposed thatched roof – the rest was completely underwater like this home.

By the time we arrived to Puerto Alegria, the sun had set and it was hard to fully comprehend how much the river had increased – it had grown so much that the floor of the maloca (which is at the entrance of the house at the riverbank) was completely covered in at least 3 feet of water – this doesn’t take into account that the maloca floor is elevated at least 12 feet off the ground, and all of that was underwater too. Talking with Jherry, the director of the home in Puerto Alegria, he said that if the water levels grew another 2 centimeters (which was expected), they would surpass the city’s record.

Usually, none of this is underwater.

These stairs were completely underwater – from August 2010

Despite the constraints dry locations (we could pretty much only do things in the dining room), we had a very fun week with the 40 boys living in Puerto Alegria. Since the high river level flooded the school, classes were cancelled indefinitely until the students could return safely. I can’t imagine a more perfect group to have been in Puerto Alegria that week because without knowing that the boys would be off of school, they had prepared many games & activities to do with them. It was a blessing to both the team and the boys that they were able to spend almost all week together, from early morning to late evening.

Since it was Holy Week, the group shared about what the week meant but also brought a few traditions that American children participate in during Easter. We had an Easter egg hunt (which turned into bob for eggs in the flooded soccer field), the boys made & decorated Easter baskets (which were “filled” by the Easter bunny) and we had a Easter party, including decorations.

And, of course we made the customary trek to Iquitos with the boys to go to the Quistococha Zoo and the group was generous enough to invite the boys & staff to a pollo a la brasa lunch and the movies.

It was rainy at the zoo, so Alvaro and Presley turned a garbage bag into a rain jacket
Lexon & Job Neber, brothers

Marcelo & Alexis at lunch

It was the first time Lenin had pollo a la brasa. We had to take a photo with his first chicken!

We ended the week with dance and skit presentations and a dance party on the last evening. Of the 40 boys at Puerto Alegria, the majority of them are new. Despite that I had spent 2 months at the home during summer 2011, many of these boys arrived after I left. I enjoyed seeing the new faces, learning new names and being able to share a bit with them. For many, this volunteer group was their first experience with a group of foreigners who had come from far away to play and have fun with them. As we left Puerto Alegria to head to the Iquitos airport, we all couldn’t help but talk about how great it was to hear laughter and see big smiles on the faces of these boys – many who are at least a 3 day boat ride from their family & home.



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A little bonus sighting at the end of the trip? President Ollanta Humala was visiting Iquitos, surveying the water damage from the river and declaring a state of emergency for the region. We caught glimpses of him boarding Peru’s equivalent of Air Force One at the Iquitos airport before our flight took off. Humala is the man in the white shirt boarding the airplane.

40 in Kusi

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8 days. 2 universities from Texas. 40 students. Kusi.

It was spring break a couple weeks ago for two Texas universities, and instead of heading home or the beach, 40 students from the RUF (Reformed University Fellowship) programs at Southern Methodist University and Texas Tech decided to spend a week helping at our Girasoles home for boys in Kusi.

They moved tons of rocks for the floor of the addition to the school and planted 1500 eucalyptus trees.

We visited the on-site school and the students performed a couple typical carnaval dances.

And we spent time playing with the Girasoles boys – like the other boys, Socimo, can entertain himself with anything.

Since it was a large group and I was there with them by myself, very few photos were taken during the 8 days… It was a busy week, but a great time with the Girasoles boys and getting to know the students and leaders.

The next group arrives this Sunday morning and we head north to the jungle – to Puerto Alegria and Iquitos!

Cusco & the Sacred Valley

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In an effort to get construction projects lined up for the summer work teams, Billy has been visiting a few of our Girasoles homes over the past few weeks to meet with the directors and figure out possible projects and budgets. Since I know nothing about this, and we have been busy with other things, he has typically made the trip on his own. But, when time came for him to go to our home in the Sacred Valley, we decided to take a few days to visit & stay with the Girasoles and see a few Incan ruins in the area – including Machu Picchu. It was the first time I was back in the Sacred Valley and at the home since 2009.

We spent the first day walking around colonial Cusco.

Since I’m a Peruvian resident now, we both were able to go to Machu Picchu on the “Peruvian price” – that’s just 20 soles roundtrip for the train, 36 soles for the bus from the train to the entrance and 65 soles entrance to Machu Picchu (regularly about $250). We arrived in Aguas Calientes at 6:30am and the return train didn’t leave til 9:30pm, which afforded us a lot of time to explore Machu Picchu and the town. We both had been to Machu Picchu before, but this was our first time together.

We walked to the Inca Bridge (within Machu Picchu) and thankfully we didn’t have to cross it.

We also walked all the way up to Intipunku – the Sun Gate. This is where the Inca Trail ends and the first look at Machu Picchu. In the right photo, Machu Picchu is the clearing on the top of the mountain I’m pointing to, and the brown path is the road from Aguas Calientes up to the main entrance.

The next day, We spent time with the Girasoles boys drawing pictures, and later went out to dinner with all of them.

We also visited their new home which should be completed by mid-March (and Billy figured out some potential projects with Hector, the home director).

The kitchen and large dining room.

On our last day, we visited Salinas salt mines just outside of Maras. Since pre-Inca times, salt has been obtained in Maras by evaporating salty water from a local subterranean stream. The highly salty water emerges at a spring, a natural outlet of the underground stream. The flow is directed into an intricate system of tiny channels constructed so that the water runs gradually down onto the several hundred ancient terraced ponds. Almost all the ponds are less than four meters square in area, and none exceeds thirty centimeters in depth.

And drove through the beautifully green Sacred Valley to visit Moray, the Incan “agricultural laboratory” which consists of various circular terraces. The depth and orientation of the terraces with respect to wind and sun creates a temperature difference of as much as 15 °C (27 °F) between the top and bottom. It is thought that the large temperature difference was possibly used by the Inca to study the effects of different climatic conditions on crops.

It was a short 4 days in the rich, green Sacred Valley which left me wanting more time looking at the beautiful mountains, exploring the intriguing ruins, walking through the little pueblos throughout the valley and spending time with our Girasoles boys.

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.