Tuesday

Tuesday in Peru. As usual I'll start by uploading a selection of the pictures I took today.

This one is actually from Monday night. Across the bay near our hostel is a cross that lights up at night. It dominates the night skyline.

Another image from our commute. I've been trying to get a good picture of this market stall all week.
Today I managed to get this shot out the bus window.

There's no running water in Pachecutec. When you're done, you bucket flush -- oh, and no toilet paper allowed down the sewage either. One of the small improvements we made today was to add toilet seats.

No one seems to use a level for construction here. The roof lines look like they were placed randomly. Fortunately the roof is needed only for shade.

Today I got out from behind the camera and did some "real" work. Now that there's an obligatory picture of me I can get back to picture taking.

Ron was also doing manual labour today.
You can tell he was really enjoying it.

These young ladies were determined to carry the cement mix all the way up the hill.

In all we've toted up sand, cement mix and water up that long sandy hill to the classroom where we'll be pouring a new floor.

The church is also getting a new front door.
Colin knows which end of the hammer to hold.

Benito is the local man hired for this project. He's the real boss. We do what he tells us. Benito's wage as well as all the materials for construction were paid from the fundraising we did.

After lunch we again went out front to play with kids as they trickled in for VBS. Christopher has found a friend.

Two tooth-gapped youngsters.

Nick and Margaret are the swingers of the group.

Wilma took the initiative to give the kids name tags. It's making our lives much easier as we interact with them.

One of the dramas was the parable of the sower. Here's the bird lady (Ruth) coming by to peck up some stray seeds.

Crafts continue to be the highlight. Three rooms with three different crafts.

Carmen took possession of a sleeping baby.
No Carmen, we're not allowed to bring any home with us.

Goodbye -- until tomorrow.

A goat herder we saw on the drive home.

Eventually Ron will pitch in with his thoughts...

Hello, all. It’s 9:45 pm and Kevin and Christopher stand in front of me brushing their teeth. It’s a sight, let me tell you. The nightly ritual before hitting the pillow. They, and the others, have had another long, hot, tiring,
but good day. Let me let you know about how this day went.

Supposedly I kept Kevin awake for a great deal of last night, because of my snoring. Now, I don’t believe that to be true, but then again, I was sleeping. He awoke a bit of a grump this morning because of me. Ah well, I had a good rest at least.

Nice to hear from many of you again. Ashlyn loved your comments Karla. Alisa, I was told to tell you to answer the email from Kellina in the comments from the blog. I pick them up each day and I’ll pass the message on to her.

Today we had another good day. Lots of stuff happening in our lives and hearts, and in the hearts of the children. We enjoyed another great breakfast. Scrambled eggs with LOTS of butter in them. It was then time to prepare for the drama’s and crafts, and on to the bus after prayer time.

Oh, and I made an error yesterday. We had a kind of French toast with spinach in chicken inside, not the ham. That was the day before.

This morning we had to leave two others behind. Leah was feeling much better, for which we were thankful, so Leah and Carmen came along this time. However, Bea became very ill during the morning hours. She became very weak as she lost liquids in the usual manner that doesn’t need any massive descriptions. Even fainted once from what I understand.

Carmen attended to her in the morning, and Wilma and Carmen Prayed over her as well. Harold stayed behind to watch over Bea. Bea was not happy about staying behind, as she tried to take every precaution to prevent this. We learn once again that even though we do try to take precautions, we can get sick here.

Pepe ended up staying behind today because he had work to do for other mission teams, as well as his upcoming wedding. So we had another translator with us named Christian. He is 22 years old and a student. He was a natural fit for the team. A great sense of humor and a great love for the children there.

Once again we arrived in Pachecutec (BTW, whomever sent the spelling of it in the comments, I’m sticking with my spelling because Pepe says that’s the ways it is spelled.)

We split up into our different groups. One went to the Orphanage. They ended up staying longer this time as they interacted with the kids more. Christopher helped feed some young children and that was a highlight for his day. Bethany enjoyed it very much there as well as she was able to interact more with the children, help put them down for a nap, and do the craft with them. Carmen and Wilma had a great time there too, as did the three amigos from grade 7. Ken was able to feed the young ones too, which he thoroughly enjoyed. I know he’d love to take a child home with him, but I’ve convinced him that that isn’t a good idea, just so you know Kim. : )

The other group went to homes today. Ashlyn and Holly took the experiences in and are thinking about what they have seen. Some things hit home for them, seeing how the children live. Margaret and Marg and Ruth and Nick all enjoyed the visit as well. They received small gifts from some of the families. Hand made bracelets and sashes and bags. It was very humbling for some in the group to experience the gift of generosity from those who have much less than us.

The other two groups, with Brian staying in the construction portion, did some more construction. As you can see from John’s pictures, both John and I did actually do some work today (well, you can’t really tell with me, but I actually shoveled lots of sand with Cindy today, so I have a witness that I think will support me.) We finished of shoveling the sand into bags and bringing it up to the classroom needing a new floor. We lifted the cement bags up there too. They were heavy, but John showed us how it was done. We also brought the water up to the top. Moving the water from drums at the bottom to drums at the top of the hill using smaller pails. Everything is much more labor intensive around here. As we were shoveling sand today, a funny thing happened. The taxi’s that drive by very often here (motorcycles with covered passenger seats at the back) seemed to be emitting whistling sounds. At first I couldn’t figure out what that was all about, but then it hit me. They were whistling at CINDY. Boy was she embarrassed about that. I thought it rather funny actually, and I sure bugged her about it for a while. Christian said they were all whistling at him because he was taking heavier sand bags than any of us. He has a great sense of humor.

The Roof beams were pretty much completed today. Brian headed up the construction, under the supervision of our Peruvian Construction manager. He’s 65 years old, but could outwork any one of us easy. It was interesting to watch the dynamics between Brian and Benito. I know Brian has one way of doing things, yet Benito has another and it’s a balancing act as to how we approach the work that is done here. Brian has handled it well. I say that because today Brian had measured up several roofing sheets to be cut, but Benito remeasured them and redrew the line about 1 inch differently than Brian had. I know that Brian’s measurements would have been correct too. Thanks Brian for your willingness to work along side our Peruvian friends here.

I can’t say I was willing to do that today. The tools we used today consisted of dull hacksaws (one actually formed out of reinforcing bar) and a dull skill saw. Benito asked me to cut a piece of wood with a very dull hack saw. I began to do this, but after 10 minutes of getting nowhere, I decided it would be better to use the dull skill saw instead. The wood was cut in 30 seconds. There are times when we also need to do things in the ways we see fit too.

I received a bit of a surprise today. Sergio, the Pastor of the church (yes, I’ve found out that Sergio is the actual Pastor of the church) is actually a teacher by trade. He works, as does his wife, as a teacher to support his family. So, he came to say goodbye to me today and apologize for not being able to be around because he had to teach. I found out that he works for the church at night and on weekends, and he does that for no pay. I had always thought he was paid for what he did. Interestingly enough, Ken and Ines went out to get Ken a hat tonight, and they found out that the driver of the cab they took was a Christian who drove a cab in order to support himself.

Back to the days events. The drama’s were once again VERY well done, as were the crafts. Bethany and Holly and Ashlyn did a fine job of getting the crafts ready and implementing them. One craft proved to be a bit longer and more complicated than the other two, so that posed some problems, but things worked themselves out.

I have found once again that there is a tension that occurs during these trips. The tension between blessing the children we are ministering with, and making sure the team stays healthy and processes things here while we are in Peru. This came out today. We are on the bus for 1.5 hours this time around, so that takes a bit more time out of the day for us. I do want the team to be back by 6 pm at the latest so we don’t get too tired, so that means we need to leave Patchecutec by 4 or 4:15 at the latest. In order for this to happen we need to be cleaned up by 4 pm. We try to start the VBS by 2:30 pm, after doing some outside sports with the kids and after the songs and drama’s are done that leaves us with about 45 minutes for crafts. The reason is the children get off of school at 1 pm and then go home, maybe have something to eat, change, and begin to walk to the church. This all takes time and we don’t get most of the children until about 2:30 pm.

The problem comes when I need to get the packing process started, because the children are having such fun with what we are doing.

Today that became evident in the comments that were made by some members of the team during the video time. They felt rushed to get things completed, and then having to sit on the bus for 1.5 hours was hard for them. I empathize with them, and would love to be there longer as well, but there needs to be balance in the life of the team as well, so that we get the rest we need, and also the ability to process the day. So, it was not easy having to ask the team to begin to pack up when so many of the children had not done the one craft that was more complicated. At times it’s not fun being the leader, especially of a team consisting of equal adults and YP, but at times things must be done that aren’t always popular. I hope they will understand that as the week moves on and that this won’t become a sticky point for them.

Another thing that made it seem a bit strange was that I was pushing people to get on the bus to leave, and then I ended up talking outside to Ines and Christian for 10 minutes while the team watched and wondered. I found out once I got to the bus that Carmen ended up taking a sick child home to her mother. She was holding this child for some time during VBS, and then saw her throw up on the way home. She and Luis ended up taking her home. Carmen discovered that this little girl was pretty sick and needed a doctor. The family couldn’t afford to take her, and when Carmen pressed Luis to see if she could take her, there was resistance. Luis was going to take some medicine to help the girl, but Carmen said it may not do much good. Not easy stuff to watch, and more for us to digest when it comes to assisting those we meet here.

We were able to meet a person from the U.S. on our bus ride home today as well. The translators noticed her on the side of the road with friends, and she needed a ride home and it was on our way, so we gave her a ride. She’s in the country for 10 months translating and spreading the gospel message. She actually ends up going to Patchecutec at least once a week to share the gospel message with those around.

So, we arrived home at 6 pm and most people were able to take a shower. We had another great meal. An appetizer of a half Mango with chicken stuffing and then a main course of beef and rice. Bea had soup and crackers, but the fact that she was up and taking in food was a very good sign. She seemed to be feeling much better this afternoon, for which we were very thankful.

We did our video blogs again. I don’t always know how the team likes them, but I find them very good to do. I learn about the day from different points of view and I learn things about what I am doing as well. We certainly banter back and forth as well (right Jeremy) but it’s all good fun. I hope that when the team receives these video times that they will look at them and remember the experiences they have had, both the good and the tough times.

After our video time we had Pepe and Roger, Pepe’s cousin, talk with us about Frontline again, as well as the political situation in Peru. I won’t get into those details, but it was a good conversation.

So, it’s 1 am now, and definetly time to go to bed. Pepe is beside me, as he is every night, on my balcony doing his work while I am doing mine. I have a great appreciation for what he does here in Peru for us, for the children, and for his country.

Some things that stand out for me today:

1. Missing Pepe beside me in the bus sleeping on my shoulder.
2. Missing Pepe for the day. I appreciate his work when we are there.
3. Appreciating Ines for taking over and helping to make the day go well. I had a brief conversation with Ines and she mentioned to me that many years ago the only people she would see at the church in Patchecutec were children. She is now seeing more adults, though many of them are women because the men are very busy with work, becoming Christian and she says that is partly because of the mission teams that have been coming here. That was nice to hear.
4. Watching Brian working with such patience and grace.
5. Seeing John work, and also really appreciating his gift in photography. He has a way of capturing the moment.
6. Watching Hannah, Rosalynn, and Leah trying to stay awake during our video time. They were VERY tired and went straight to bed after that.
7. Watching Holly express her frustration with her friends after they turned out all the lights as she was taking a shower. Who needs enemies when you have friends like that? And yes, she was bitter : ) .
8. Hearing from Ruth that she discovered that VBS was only a small part of the total Peru experience, and that she’s enjoying every part of it.
9. Watching my son experience all of this stuff. We’ll be talking more about it later, but he seems to be learning some things that he will be able to grow from.
10. Watching Bea as she struggled with the fact that she was sick. It was not an easy day for her emotionally, let alone physically.
11. Feeling the several rain drops that fell this evening. Very few, and very far apart, but it was rain.
12. Taking a moment and viewing some YOU TUBE clips of the Ottawa snow storm. WOW is all I can say.
13. Listening to Ken, Shawn, Colin as they drifted off to sleep with their conversations. Cute.
14. Seeing how the children are enjoying the drama’s, the songs from Ines and the crafts.
15. Seeing Kevin connect with a young girl just before VBS. He’s growing so much in the area of relationships.
16. Watching as we make simple, yet profound, impacts in the lives of the children here, and seeing how that is making us better Christians.