Peru 2012 - Day 4 - Monday

Day 4.

After a 6 ish hour sleep, I awoke,  tired.  Feeling good, but tired. 

Apparently I snored a great deal last night...sorry about that Carl.

This morning we started things 1/2 hour earlier.  Meeting at 7:00 am in the main room for devotions from Zack and reading the many great comments from all of you.  Keep them coming (did I mention that already?  : ) )

Time for personal devotions and then breakfast.  A reminder to lather on that sunscreen and take your hat along and then it was time to board the bus.  Traffic was supposed to be worse today so we left at 8:30 am. 

Traffic was worse this morning.  There seem to be many more cars on the road than two years ago.  It took us 1.5 hours to get to Pachacutec, but we arrived right at 10 am.

We moved to the library and then it was time to let everyone know what their assignments were going to be.  Today we were going to the clinic, the orphanage, visiting in homes, continuing to work on the building for the feeding program and visiting the special needs centre. 

Our group visited in homes today.  I'm going to let Gerry comment on that for a moment........

We visited 3 families today and had the opportunity to talk and pray with them.  A recurring theme with all 3 families that we visited, is that they asked to pray for their husbands.  They all have to work far away and are sometimes gone for weeks on end.  One lady, Magali, her husband Prospero is even afraid of his drive to work every day.  Just the dangerous drive that he faces.  Rosa's husband isn't fully employed but does random construction jobs that he can find, so he is often gone looking for work, and away when he finds some. 

Elizabeth, her husband, is a miner, and is usually gone for 2 weeks at a time when he worked.  This makes it hard for them  to worship, because they have kids at home and sometimes the kids don't want to be part of the service.  They also face the challenge that when their husbands come home that he does not want the family to even go to church.  The biggest thing that hit too was how open these women were with us.  Even  though they just met us, they were so open.  They shared very personal stories with us, where at home we often don't. 

We also saw that a lot of the prayer requests they had are similar to what we have here at home, like for their families, and their health.  The church has a lot of programs in the community, and often focus on the kids, which we saw is who drew the families into the church.  Elizabeth's husband had come home drunk, and the son, Kenjo said to him, "Dad you're drunk".  She said that and because of that her husband no longer comes home drunk, which really shows the influence of the children on the families.  For me personally this experience allowed me to see that they were open us to pray for them, and pray over them. At home we are often slower to ask people to pray for us, and find it hard to be humble enough to ask someone to do it for us.  We are all brothers and sisters in Christ, and even on other sides of the world we face the same challenges and issues in our families.  But the joy comes from the fact that we all pray to the same God who hears our prayers in the same way.  AND I got a papapya from Magali, right off the tree in her front yard.

Ron here again.  Yes, the visits in the homes are always a highlight for me.  I really appreciated Maria today. She's fun to bug, but when it comes to God, the church, and prayer...she is focused and the Angels pay attention. : ) She reminded me of Annette back in our church.  Amazing to listen to her pray in Spanish.  The power that comes through even not being able to understand what she was saying. 

Ok now Ron wants me (Mel) to type something... yaaaay.

Our group got the experience today of just doing some work with our hands.  It was a nice break for our group because the first two days we were doing more "emotional" work.  The first day was walking in the community and the second day was our house visits.  For sure a blessing, but can be a very emotional challenge. 

So we got to get our sweat on today.  We started out with trying to put up walls for the kindergarten room, but then we found out that they didn't have nails.  So we moved onto the job of moving sand down from the top of the hill all the way back to the kindergarten room.  That took us a few hours to move and worked on the guns shovelling that sand :)  When we finished the sand we moved on to painting a room, but the fun challenge there was that we had to get the whole room painted in less than 30 min.  We started and sent Coco to go get more people to help us.  For some reason too I, as the shortest person in our group, was doing the high parts. Then it was time for lunch and VBS prep.

OH! and I am going to do a shout out to Mr. George Schellingerhoud for his birthday, YOU ARE OOOOOOOLD

Ron again.  The groups came back from their places and we had lunch.  People talked about their experiences and relaxed a bit from the heat.  Today was HOTTER than yesterday. 

VBS started at 2 pm and it was HOT.  We had 75 kids today.  We played sports before hand again and just had fun with the kids.  Soon it was time for songs again, with lots of actions. 

Another puppet drama with Lucy and Mel...way to go Lucy.  : )

Then it was craft time.  Organized chaos, but all good. 

Marsha, Edith and Dianne held the first teacher training day, and it went very well. 

Here's Edith to tell you a bit more about her experience today.

The Gamaliel Christian School has begun its third year. School begins at the beginning of March in Peru! Along with providing a rich curriculum, the goal of the school is to share the love of Christ and to equip the students to become future disciples. When the school opened they began with about 30 students in two classrooms. This year they have about 107 students in eight classrooms and registration is still ongoing.

Today we taught our first workshop for the teachers. The teachers arrived in the heat of the afternoon and gathered together to share experiences as educators. We began with introductions and shared with each other why education is so important to us. Through the words of our translator, Pia, we shared our passion and love for our students. 

We discovered today that many of the concerns we have in Canada are similar to those at the Gamaliel Christian School. It was exciting to provide a number of suggestions on how they might manage classroom behaviour. These ideas were well received by those in the group.

We look forward to having more conversations with this group of teachers as we continue our workshops tomorrow!

Ron back again.

We boarded the bus by 4:30 sharp to avoid being stuck in traffic.  After showering and dinner (consisting of rice, potatoes in a sauce and a kind of steak)  it was time to meet together in our large group.  I read your wonderful blog comments again and we laughed a lot, and were touched a lot.  I love the comments from Annette B and the kids...priceless.  We are learning so much about John....and his fame in that small town of Peterbourough...if that's how you spell it.  :) 

Pepe then gave a brief talk about Frontline and the reason they exist.  He did a great job of reminding us that long term partnerships are a good thing.  Ask this group about what he said when they get back.  It's very good stuff.

We then practiced some songs for tomorrow and did our video blogs again. People milled about, and some went to bed. 

Lots of great stuff happening in Pachacutec this week.  I'll now let you have a look at the pictures and I'll make some comments.  Oh, and check out the bottom of this entry for a couple of administrative items for some of you back home.   

John loves the flora and fonna around the compound here.  We are hoping that Margaret V will check out the blog and see these pictures.  Let her know if you see her. 

On the bus praying about the day. 

You can't tell, but it's HOT on the bus.  The strong sun shines in and you get burnt during the 1.5 hour drive. 

Today the traffic was much worse.  We left at 8:30 am and it took us 1.5 hours to get to the church. 

The kinds of transportation varies in Peru.  Here's a simple horse and cart set up. 

 Hey, they caught me attempting a morning snooze.  I was really awake, but trying to humour everyone. 

We keep telling everyone to wear sunscreen.  This is why...I think Colin got the message. 

One of our groups went to the orphanage/day care centre.  What follows are a series of facial pictures of the kids there. 

Aren't they all so cute! 

Leah working hard in the kitchen at the orphanage.  They helped make lunch for the kids. 

Each day meals are served to the kids.  It's LOTS of work.

More pictures of sweet children. 

Carl helping out the children. He's really having a hoot relating to all the little ones.  Nice to see. 

 Alyson showing the kids her camera. 

Steve...did YOU draw that picture, or the child with you?

Some of the food for lunch. 

Cooking on the stove. 

 Steve hard at work.  He's a natural at this. 

Helping the children eat. 

Carl being mauled by the little ones.  I think he's rather enjoying it. 

 Lunch time in the orphanage.

There is a seniors group that also meets at the orphanage.  We met them last time, and here they are again. 

Back at the church. Even the children are getting into the helping mode. 

Fontana enjoying being mauled......

Corinne and her back pack.  : ) 

I think there wasn't a time when Fontana didn't have someone she was carrying. 

 More games just before VBS. 

Megan also had many children to carry. 

Lucy's having a blast this week. 

Brenda playing with the little ones. 

Milling about and talking with the kids. 

What are you doing to this child Ben and Fontana...do we have to talk!  : ) 

Henry can you breathe? 

Madii too is having a blast this week.  Her big heart is going to have a hard time on Thursday when we have to say good-bye. 

Seems like Lucy is playing some sort of somersault game. 

Who's putting this kid in the air...don't let go...please! 

Cute. 

Zack guarding the net in Soccer. 

Leah smiling.  She has such a big heart...get it....  : )  

Henry don't you dare drop that child! 

Steve playing with the boys. 

Ben...the walking accident.  Yes, he got hurt again today, but only a minor one.  How do you handle him Annette....  : ) 

Seems there's a theme of kids hanging on our young people's necks.  Can YOU breath Michael?  Chris B doesn't look too worried, but he doesn't have a kid on his neck, does he?

A close up..but Michael seems to be happy still. 

Oh, I see Brad is trying to outdo everyone...two kids on his back...show off  : ) 

Do I see three now....hows that working for you Brad? 

Please, please..pick me up.....

This is getting very creative...... 

 See the band aid on Ben's knee....just one of many. 

A game of swing the kid broke out....I hope that kid is light Chris. 

Steve, you are awesome.

These kids just love being thrown around. 

Chris, how's that burnt neck with the child on your back....

VBS and song time. 

Ian picked up a child on his neck.  He's really enjoying himself this week.  Fun to watch. 

Lots of action songs. 

hmmmm, nice shot.  

Tobie with a wonderful child. 

The teaching begins for the teachers. 

All the teachers had to talk about themselves a bit. 

The walls are going up for the new feeding program building.  They don't stop working here.  After we are gone, the work keeps going and we see changes the next day.  

Steve and Sergio are getting the old kitchen ready to become a class room. 

A worker putting up the walls for the feeding program building. 

Craft time. 

They are getting used to being in smaller groups. 

Today it was putting plates together and making tambourines. 

The finished project.

Leah helping Cesia with her craft. 

Ben giving and receiving love. 

The three amigo's and the actions to the songs. 

Time to say good-bye. 

So, this brings us to the end of day 4.  Another great day in Pachacutec.  Until tomorrow.....

Oh, and P.S. 

A happy birthday goes out to Karlyna who turned 16 today. 

Peter B, happy bday to you too.