Day 4 - Peru 2014 - Routine begins

Day 4

Monday

The routine begins. 

It was a long but good day yesterday.  

We all awoke this morning a bit tired, but ready for the day.  

 This is a picture of yesterday still.  Forgot to include it. 

Our office space for the week.  

The big room where we meet.  Chris is getting pictures ready for the blog, Carmen is reading the blog, and emailing, Erin and Pepe are working.  

I soon began to write the blog where Chris' is sitting.

At present I'm actually outside the room because it seems that the wireless internet is working faster out here, and I had 106 pictures to put on the blog tonight.  Lots of uploading time.  So far, so good.    I'm quite tired today, so if there are spelling mistakes, let me know when I get home...  : )  

 As you can see from this picture, we are all beginning to get comfortable in our rooms.  I think this is one of the boys rooms.  This is still pretty neat.  

I am bunking with Colin....only Colin.  

Didn't want any snoring going on, except if it was from me.  

 Hi Samantha...good morning. 

We once again gathered at 7 am ish to begin our day reading your wonderful comments and have our morning devotional time.  

 One of the comments that came from Chris' mom and dad were that Chris needed lots of hugs this week.  The women were glad to oblige...so Peter and Wilma, Chris will be hugged a great deal now...much to his delight I might add.  : )  

 We are reading through our devotional time.  

Miranda is enjoying it.  

We break off into our small groups for a short period of time to talk about the devotions. 

Pastor Steve put them together for us this week.  Thanks for doing that Steve.  

 Breakfast is served. 

Buns with melted cheese and ham. 

 Josh getting some rest right after getting up.  We are all pretty tired, that's for sure.  : )

 Aw....a great picture.  

 Ben, what are you doing?????

Good thing I didn't see that.  

 Hey Robert.  

Jackie, we have really been enjoying your comments to us. 

Robert will have no possessions once he returns and a rearranged home.... : ) 

 We were on the buses by 8:15 ish this morning. 

The drive will be longer today. 

Much more traffic than yesterday. 

I took the big bus, and decided to get pictures of people on the big bus...so here we have Sandy and Simon

 Martin

 Andrew and Lori-Anne

 A picture of the drive through the city

 Colin and Brenda with their new wrist bands.  

 Sarah and Mina

 Amy and Bernadette

 Silke and Laura...it's not easy getting a picture of Silke, BTW.  

 Robert

 Wilma, busy at work.  

 Lucy and Mikayla

 Annette and Tobie.  

Annette always chipper, Tobie...not so. 

 Miranda and Cheryl

 Erin...always working....

 And me, with my other appendage  

 And Chris with his. 

 Oh, and here are Sarah and Rachel. 

 And Ben....it seems that whenever I point the camera in Ben's direction, this face automatically forms...very interesting Ben. 

 I sat in the back of the bus today. 

Some real kidney punchers for speed bumps. 

That's something I never miss once I come home.  : ) 

I noticed this morning as we were driving that there were lots of water puddles along the side of the road today. Apparently in rained quite hard, and quite long overnight in Pachacutec.  It made the news.  Not a usual, or good thing to be happening here.  

 We arrive at Gamaliel church at 10 am. 

The school children greeted us as they have done in the past.  Always a treat. 

 We greeted the children, and they greeted us.  

 The long procession to the library.  

 The youngest children. 

So cute.

 And here's a memory I will keep with me forever. 

Martin high fiving EVERY child in this line.  I got it on video. Apparently he does this with his grandchildren too. :) 

 It took a while to get through the line...... :) 

 We gathered in the sanctuary for a short program from the school children. They were very noisy this morning. Excited to see us, and the first day of school after a bit of a break. 

 Andrew with his "shirt".  : ) 

 The children sang a couple of songs for us, and gave us words of greetings.  

 We gathered in the library and organized ourselves again into different groups.  This was the construction crew that was going to be sanding and painting today.  They are NOT bandits infiltrating our group....I don't think. 

 We practiced our craft for the day.  

Salvation bracelets.  

Miranda and Lucy volunteered to do some English teaching with Ines helping her out.  They did a really good job.  

 This is one of the classes in session. 

They have school from about 7:30 am to 1 pm. 

 Our construction crew painting up a storm.  

 Sheila and Sarah doing the cutting in. Apparently I'm supposed to now allow Sarah to paint, because she has done such a good job....I'm all for that, when the time comes. 

 The room where the concrete floor was poured was also getting a new roof.  

 This is the floor finished and ready for children to be using. 

 On the road to Pachacutec.  I guess this picture just slipped in, eh Chris????

 Bea, Dianne and Marsha began teacher training today. 

First they did some classroom observing.  

 The youngest children had school in the church, as their room was being painted.  

 Here is a classroom with kids having a snack.  

I discovered today that the school has started a small cafeteria.  Just this year. 

Children come to Pastor Sergio's home and for 1 solas they can get rice and chicken and a drink.  

One group went to the clinic today. 

Our only day to do this. 

This is a family that Carmen met there.  She had the opportunity to pray with them. Neat. 

 A brand new clinic has been built where the old one stood (see 2012 and 2010 posts for that building).  

This one opened in Nov 2013 and is VERY modern and VERY nice.  

 A  part of the clinic with dentist facilities.  

There are now 4 such clinics in the area.  

 A group also went to El Refugio orphanage/day care centre. Here's Brenda showing pictures to the children.   

and playing with the children.  

 We also did a bunch of cleaning of the place. 

 You look excited to have your picture taken Mikayla. : ) 

 The group with the Dr. of the clinic.  

 Back at the school.  

Some children on lunch break who wanted their picture taken.  

 This is the cafeteria I was talking about. 

 Falicitas runs it.  

 Pastor Sergio's son has been visiting with his family for the past while, but today he was leaving to travel back to Chili to continue his studies to be a Doctor.  I was asked to pray for/with him, which I really enjoyed doing.  He's on my right.  

 Gigi, one of our translators, and second in command to Erin and Pepe now, decided it would be nice for me to have a picture taken by this sign.  I think she just wanted to use my camera.  : ) 

 Break time for Gigi, Maria-Gracias, and Erin.  

 Cute children at El Refugio. 

 Apparently Samantha fainted while visiting in one of the homes today.  

Don't worry John, she's fine, but will now eat a bit better and drink a bit more.  Lesson learned. : ) 

Sarah and Silke finishing up the room. 

The others moved outside to paint some walls. 

Getting ready to put up the roof trusses.  

 The painting crew on the outside walls sanding.  Very dusty work.  

 Back at El Refugio.  Rachel enjoying her time with the children.  

 Sarah too.  

 Before we knew it, it was time for lunch. 

During lunch a game of scrabble came out. 

 After lunch, it was time to once again welcome the children with various games. 

Here's some catch going on. 

 And more frisbee.  

 Simon and Sandy brought their juggling balls.  They are very good.  

 Hey, Julia...you found your HAT!!!!!!!

 A game of soccer broke out...go figure.  :) 

 Face painting and the women's group met again as well, and at 2:45 pm we gathered everyone into the church to begin VBS.  Quite a crowd.  90 children again today.  

 Gerry enjoying the songs again.  

 Drama time.  

 Robert in the thick of it again.  

Game time.   

 A cute shot.  

 Today's craft completed.  

While VBS was going on, the teaching of the teachers was also going on.  We began this today and will do it tomorrow and Wednesday too.  Bea walked through the fundamental of Christian education.  Tomorrow I'll show a picture of how they lay it all out on the wall. Pretty Cool.  Martin was very impressed with the quality of the teachers, and the material presented to them.  The teachers seemed engaged and interested too.  I'm so glad we were able to do this again this year.  

 VBS scripture memorization. 

 Colin...a bit overdone in the face painting department don't you think?  

 Sheldon helping out with craft time. 

 Annette and I sharing thoughts of the trip.  

 Rachel in her glory.  

 We  had the animal balloon makers make balloon animals to hand out as prizes for the kids who did memory work. 

Anika did a great job.  

 The final event of the VBS was to lead the kids out with the....hmmmm, what was it called now...I don't remember.  But it involved a song, and all of us making a tunnel of sorts to go through.  I got to lead the kids by dancing to a great tune.  Was lots of fun.  

 Here they are leaving the building.  

 We were on the bus by 4:30 and home by 6 pm. 

Time to grab a quick shower before dinner at 6:30 pm, or take a moment to read yesterday's blog entry.  

 Dinner is served.  I had our cook explain our meal to us again.  He's so shy.  It's cute to watch.  

 The food was delicious again.  

 Again, Gigi go a hold of my camera and took SEVERAL pictures of me getting my lactose pills out. 

 Tonight is was rice, and mashed potatoes and vegetables and meat.  Jello for dessert.  Yummy.  

 Chris was part of group #4 to clean up after dinner.  He was having a hard time doing it apparently.  : ) Also it seemed like he was having a hard time just working.  : ) 

 I've asked Cindy to journal her week. 

She's finding it hard, but doing ok.  Right Cindy.... : ) 

 After dinner we gathered in our large meeting room again to go over the schedule for tomorrow, then read more comments from all of you, and then to pray. 

We had a wonderful time of prayer tonight. 

Then it was time for our video blogs and to relax and go to bed.  OR play some ridiculous game that I can't explain because it makes NO SENSE!!  : )  

I end the blog with Robert doing what he's been doing a lot of on this trip.  Journaling.  I hope to be able to read his journal at the end of our trip.  We'll have to see. 

So ends day 4.  Tomorrow will be a long day, so the blog may not have as many pictures in it.  We'll have to see.  

Today was a GREAT day.  Lots of neat little memories for everyone once again. The group is working hard, and it's an honour to be part of this experience once again.  

The relationship that are continuing to be built are awesome to see. 

Our translators are the BEST in the world, and fun to bug as well.  We are truly blessed in many ways. 

Now it's off to bed and soon it will be a new day.  

Blessings to you all, and good night.