Peru 2010 - Friday

Friday evening. We have left Pachacutec for the last time. It was a good day. A hot day. A day of goodbye’s. I¨m now writing on Ines´ computer, as mine received a virus from the internet cafe I posted to you on Tuesday. Everything is in Spanish, so I´m having to learn Spanish rather quickly to navigate the programs on the computer. Please excuse the formatting issues that might arise from that. The virus fried my computer and Christian, one of the translators, is at this moment trying to revive it at his home. I hope he can load a new copy of Windows onto my computer so I can blog the last couple of days. Otherwise you will have to wait until Sunday to get this next entry, when I am at Pepe´s home. I left you sometime this morning. Today was another hot day. A very hot day. Difficult to walk up the sandy stairs and those who worked on the classrooms today felt the heat. I managed to get a snooze in after posting the blog today, but that meant that I once again managed to miss getting pictures of the feeding program going on at the church. Each day I have meant to get pictures of the kids eating, but haven´t been able to. Ah well, this happens. Our groups all went to the various places again, but I don´t think I have pictures of everything this time. We did get pictures of others the other days, so those will just have to do. Everyone came back with wonderful stories to tell. VBS was great again, but a bit crazy this time around. We broke a Gamaliel church record today. 180 kids. WOW again. Crazy, crazy stuff, but everyone did very well. We also managed to finish off the walls and the roof of the two classrooms before we left. Some of the boys continued to work on the classrooms while VBS was going on. I think they felt good about accomplishing that. We all knew that this would be our last day, but it sure came fast again. After our singing, drama and crafts, we took some time to hang out with the kids. Many of our group wrote notes to the kids and had them translated by our translators. Some in the group cried, so once again, it rained in Pachacutec. We then all went into the church and Sergio held a brief closing blessing ceremony for us. Words of blessing as we depart, and another dance by some of the young people. It was enjoyed by all. The church then gave us all hand made purses and-or backpacks and thanked us for our work in their church. It was truly an honour to be there. After the ceremony, it was time for a group picture with our group and the church members present too. One final time for farewell and then I had to push people onto the bus. Always something I don´t like to do, but we´d be there all night if I didn´t. Tears were certainly flowing by some, and others did well containing themselves. Our bus ride was a bit more subdued this time around, but then again, it always has been on the night we leave Pachacutec. Once back at the Hostel we had supper and then we took showers (well most of us took showers. I still have to yet. ) Pepe´s computer received the virus I got because I used his computer with my USB stick. It seems that his computer is ok, for which I am thankful. I was hoping to read the 57 plus comments to the group using Pepe´s computer, but that virus put a stop to that. Instead we went to an internet cafe close by and I ended up printing them out. At 8 30 pm we gathered back in the dining hall and I read all your comments to the group. It took 45 minutes to do. Lots of great comments. Thank you for sending them. I then had the group do an exercise that I always do at the end of a learning opportunity. They all received a blank piece of paper and put their names on it. They then passed that paper to their right and that person wrote a nice comment about them and signed it. Those papers went right around the group, and now I have a stack of papers to contend with when I get home. I add comments to them too, and then send them to the group members about 3 weeks later. During that writing time, Pepe purchased some Peruvian beers for the adults and wine for those that didn´t want beer, and lots of Inca Cola for those who wanted that. Just a nice gesture after all the hard work that people had put in over the week. I also handed out the Soccer Jersey´s that everyone had purchased. I think most of the group will wear theirs tomorrow, but we´ll see. The group is not pretty much in bed, and all is quiet again. I like this time of night. A time to relax, reflect, and realize how busy we have been, and how much God has worked in our lives this week. Tomorrow morning we become tourists for the first time. We will not be going to the park with the church. Things just didn´t work out for that to happen. We will instead visit the catacombs, the city centre, a nice park, a grocery store to pick up some Inca Cola to take home, the market to gather souvenirs and lunch and dinner. Then it´s off to the airport to send the group off, and Chris and I get a good night´s sleep at Erin and Pepe´s place. I´ll probably blog Saturday´s events on that Sunday and send them out to you. For now, it´s safe to say that the group has had a good week and we are all satisfied with what we have done here in Peru. We made new friends in another country and we have seen God at work in all of our lives. I hope that most of this sticks with most of us, but I leave that up to God. I´ll reflect more on the experiences of the week on Sunday, because quite frankly, my brain isn´t functioning all that well right now.......... So, it´s time to get a few pictures ready for the blog and off to bed. Blessings to you all. I´m glad you have enjoyed the blog thus far.

Patti getting a check up from the Doctor at the clinic. Today we were able to give the medical supplies to them. They were very thankful for them.

Working hard cutting the walls. They don´t use drywall, but something else made from fibreglass. Much easier to work with than all those small strips of wood. The building went up much faster because of it too. Chris using a hammer. He only bent two or three nails I think.

They continue to work hard, even though you can´t see how hot it is.

Cooking in the kitchen for the kids. I missed getting pictures of those kids again due to a nap I took. Too bad.

This lady just started working in the kitchen. She is alone and not able to feed herself so she asked if she exchange work for food. That is what the church has done for her. Nice to see the feeding program working out so well and being a blessing to this lady.

Some of the team today building didn´t have enough work to do, so they helped preparing for VBS. They seemed to like the heat.

At lunch, some of the group take a well deserved rest.

The children are the reason we bond with this place. Aren´t they just cute.

VBS and more songs with actions. Our group really got into them.

The kids, all 180 of them having a good time. Ines, one of our translators does such a good job with these kids. They can get out of hand at time, as many of them don´t have their parents around to raise them. They are off working.

Gerry finally got his wish to be in a drama. He made a GREAT Roman Soldier.

Brenda helped a girl who was burned by hot water. It wasn´t an easy experience getting this little girl some help. You should ask Brenda sometime how she felt about that experience.

Saying goodbye.

Two of the children from the church sunday school program thanked us for coming.

Pastor Sergio thanking us before we leave.

A group shot with our group and those from Gamaliel church.

Brenda in her element.

Colin just loved helping kids with crafts.

The usual pose for Cindy. I think she has 2400 pictures now.....

Our dinner.

Relaxing doing the comments in the evening.

Annette and Marg enjoying some great Peruvian beer. It really hit the spot after a week of heat and work.

The jerseys that we purchased from Frontline.

An yes, my computer in the fritz. It might just be fixed today.

So that ends this entry. I am presently in an internet cafe posting this entry. The rest of the group is going to the catacombs. I´ll meet up with them shortly. We are tourists today.

This morning we all awoke and packed and cleaned up our rooms. We had breakfast at 9 am and thanked our cooks. We will thank our translators today too. After breakfast we met in the main large room and I shared some closing remarks about returning to Canada and sharing this story with all of you. We then took some time to pray for the country of Peru and bless it. I will share one more blog entry about our travels tomorrow, and then end with a concluding blog entry with some reflective thoughts after that. Stay tuned if you wish.......the last one might not have many pictures, but will have things for you to chew on........Please post more entries on the blog so the group can read them when they get home. Blessings.....I´m now off to be a tourist too.