Marcos Hits the Dance Floor

Marcos and I have been feverishly working on a dance routine. After much practice, here is the final product…

Life without water

As a kid, I remember taking late night stand-up baths because I thought they were quicker. You just wash what matters most, and then off to bed you go. Well, having reached adulthood, I never imagined going through that same process again. Fast forward now to the last week of August, 2009, and I am going through the same motions. Our water has been out now for three days, but fortunately we have a well. We haul water all day long –making sure that all the bathrooms are equipped, buckets in the showers full, and all the sinks in the kitchen ready for action.

For whatever reason, our well also has an abundant supply of dirt. This makes taking showers tricky. With a full bucket of water, you need to allow the dirt to settle, and then take your stand-up bath trying desperately not to disturb the dirt particles now resting on the bottom. Our showers have been less, our odor has been more, but life has still continued with this kink in the chain.

Our water pump is now being worked on, but being well accustomed to the Peruvian, “Oh, sure, that will be done tomorrow,” will allow me to still be surprised when the pump actually shows up –which in fact will not be tomorrow, or the next day, or probably this week. Someone finally brought over a little pump the other day, but the poor little thing has half the power. We now have water; occasionally. So, our bathing journey continues. When our normal pump finally does come, we will rejoice, but until them, we are loading up on deodorant and Axe. 8)

How is Felix doing?

After spending two semesters in Lima at the Adventist University, it has been decided that Felix will now come back to Iquitos. He is pursuing a degree in Psychology (having switched over from Architecture) and hopefully will complete that degree at a local university here in Iquitos.

He experienced some challenges in Lima, the biggest one being grades. He enjoyed the university tremendously, but faced some challenges of homesickness, friends, feeling like a small town kid in a big city, etc… Currently, he is on a 5 month work program to show that he truly wants to further his education. This break will hopefully allow him to get back on track, and get himself ready for continuing his education come March.

Please keep him in your prayers. We will continue to keep you updated.

Micro-Finance Update

This last week, we kicked off another group full of amazing women. This group is carrying over the same people who were in the first group, with the addition of one more person. With that being said, we have one group of 6 women (already started upon their three month journey) and another group of 5 women (which will start their 4 month journey on September 21). Thanks to some additional funding, we were able to add 6 more ladies to the original 5 (now we have 11 in all).

Each lady commits to coming to every single meeting for the duration of the loan. They each bring ideas to the table. The purpose of this loan is to assist in starting, or expanding, business ideas with people in the community. Their participation is key. We try to provide some necessary resources in order to help them, but ultimately, the choice is theirs.

From what we have found, the group concept provides some great pressure and responsibility to the members. They hold each other accountable –not wanting to let the others down. This scenario, we have noticed, creates a family atmosphere. This, along with constant involvement from the leaders, has tremendously assisted in the consistent repayment from the ladies.

Anyone that has interest in this program, please contact me (linfoot.aaron@gmail.com). This is an incredible program that has so much potential. Ultimately, this is Gods program. He will help lead this where it is meant to go.