Some Random Pictures

Marcos helping Kelly wash.

Leo, the stinky squirrel monkey, sleeping.

Herkie relaxing on one of his favorite palm branches--our view from below.

Bobby, our ferrocious guard dog. He is a lot like Bruce Willis--tough, proud, getting old, but can still kick some serious booty.

Aaron and Marcos doin' their thing.

School for the Tots

With the 3 new volunteers has come an increased investment in the little kids programs. Two ladies, Priscila and Bianca, have created and implemented a daily program for the kids (Monday – Friday). Currently, they are working their way through the alphabet –both oral and written. They do practices, sing songs, go on walks, play group games, and invest a lot of quality time. We have seen amazing improvements in all of the children and are excited to see them learning in a fun way. They are developing a base of knowledge that will help with schooling later on in life. We are very grateful for these ladies sacrifice in being down here. They are doing a wonderful service.

Here are some photos of the kids.

New Twin Girls!

Meet our newest edition to the girls of POPPYS House: Valesca and Zuleica. They are twin 4-year-old girls. It has been a new adventure for us here, especially since we administrators have taken on the role of parents for these two girls—bathing, washing clothes, combing hair, playing, putting to bed, feeding, taking to the bathroom, etc.

They arrived at the beginning of November and since then we have been learning many new aspects about parenting. Many of you parents—especially our own parents!—may feel a sense of “I told you so” or “How do you like it from this end?” and get a good laugh at seeing us dive in to a much more direct parenting role for a couple of very dependent children. Although we get no tax breaks from it, it has been a new challenge that has been making us grow into better people (better parents!).

They came with ragged clothes, lice, worms and the lack of consistency in their lives. We have been able to clean them up—some new clothes, hair cuts, de-worming (won’t go into the gory details of that, but wow), and a consistent schedule and discipline. We have seen great improvements in the past several weeks.

The following is a heart-felt letter we would like to share:

Dear Moms and Dads (especially our own, but not exclusively):
We apologize for all the pains, stresses and grey hairs we have caused you in our lifetime, but we are forever grateful for your example. You showed love, patience, wisdom and perseverance in the face of many ridiculous moments with ungrateful children (at times). You kept telling yourself “They’ll thank me someday” and perhaps never believed it. Well, it was true. We thank you. We thank you for disciplining us and training us. We now understand the blood, sweat and tears you shed because of us and we deeply respect your courage and strength as parents. We constantly seek to follow your example as we are now finding ourselves in a very similar role. Parenting is challenging and rewarding. We hope our girls will thank us someday. J
Much Love,

Aaron and Kelly

Evicted by Paul Opp!

Since our arrival, we have seen and experienced the completion of building number 2. When we first arrived, only the bottom floor was completed (kitchen and dining hall), but over the course of this last year, the second floor has taken shape. The roof was put up, walls constructed, lights put in and now one room has been finished. Paul politely told us to move up into the new room, and we eagerly went. With three new volunteers coming, we needed to get out and moved in.

The new room has been very nice. The floor is tiled, there are now windows on both sides –allowing for a draft at night –and we thoroughly enjoy the new and improved bathroom. There were some amazing groups that came down and donated both time and money to be where we are today (we are all thankful), but there is still more needing to be done. We lack money to complete the other administrator room and the computer room/library for the girls. With these two extra rooms, we would be able to move up the other administrator couple, freeing up another room for more girls/sick bay , and with the library, have a more productive place to study –it would also allow for group projects, computer related homework, and programs for the kids.

If you would like to help, email Paul Opp (President of People of Peru Project): U4peru@aol.com.



Here is the course that building 2 has taken since our arrival:


You can see the building in the background. When we first arrived, they had just recently finished the bottom part of this building (kitchen and dining room).
After a few months, money came in to start work on the two administrators rooms.

In Christmas of 2008, we were able to put on a much needed roof. The roof is now complete as is the first room (far left) on this building. The second administrator room (middle with no door) has yet to be finished as well as the computer/library/study hall room.

A Monster Eel

Recently, Casey and Nathaniel have been doing a lot of fishing in the nasty water in our back "field/lake" (depending on the time of year). There had been a ton of overgrowth, but over the course of a month, and with some help, they chopped down the growth with their machetes, like real charapas. One night, they were fishing and found this ugly beast--a distant relative to the Lock Ness Monster. They measured it to be 1.75 meters (5' 7"). Fortunately, the nightwatchman was with them at the time of the catch, because they were going to grab it with their hands, thinking it was a big fish. He yelled for them to not get in the water, since he recognized it to be an electric eel. They hooked its mouth with a stick and drug it up to the house. We had some fun taking pictures, but it was still creepy. We stuck it in a wheelbarrow and gave it to a neighbor. Apparently, some people like to eat eel. Tasty.

Worship with Papa Paul

We were privileged to have Paul out at POPPYS House for worship one Friday night. The girls loving seeing “Papa Paul” and were thrilled when he showed up with his two daughters. Paul gave a great talk on being thankful for what you have. He had just returned from visiting a friend in Haiti and talked about his first hand experience with the poverty there. Haiti is an island with no trees, little to no rain, tons of rocks (making it impossible to plant or grow much) and a surplus of poverty.

There were many pictures which allowed the girls to see exactly what Paul was talking about. We have so much to be thankful for and sometimes it is easy to forget. It does not matter where you are, USA, Peru or Haiti, we need to be thankful for what we have. We hope Paul is able to make it out again sometime to share some of his cool stories.

Marcos Washes Clothes

Our little dude, Marcos, has been helping the girls with washing their clothes lately. I had the opportunity for him to teach me a few things about washing my sheets. Lots of detergent, soap (which he calls jamon, meaning ham, rather than jabon), and bleach. He is adorable and he knows it.

A Typical Hospital Trip

Last week, a neighbor boy was very sick and we feared malaria or h1n1. Our local medical clinic in Santo Tomas was closed most of the week--either entirely closed or just no lab tech. Apparently there was a "lab worker strike". We couldn't even get a reference sheet to go to a hospital. So, I took him to the second best hospital in town--Hospital Regional--to the ER. I will take you all step by step through the process of getting seen at a hospital here. Keep in mind, this was to the ER, so it was faster than a regular appointment.

Arrive at hosptial. Search everywhere for Emergency. Signs take you through maze, but never any emergency area found. Go outside. Find an ambulance, thus find ER entrance. Enter ER and ask personnel where to go. Sent to caja (to pay). Wait in line. Caja lady tells me we're in wrong line, since he had insurance papers (SIS). Sent to SIS caja. Wait in line at a window. Wrong line, sent to other window. Finally get to window, sent to get make copies of the SIS paper. Search everywhere for copy window, find in other corner of hospital. Return and give copies. Sent to next window. Stamped, signed, fingerprinted. Get to wait in line for ER doctor. Talk with doctor. Sent to lab to get fluids tested. Wait at lab area. Find out I'm waiting in wrong spot. Wait in lab line. Get to front, but told to return to SIS caja because I didn't have proper stamps yet. Wait in SIS caja line and get stamped. Return to lab line to wait again. Get to front and told that I'm not in the right lab line. Need to go to ER lab. ER lab in a back hallway. Wait there. Lab worker takes my papers then tells me he needs the needles. Have to go to pharmacy. Go to pharmacy and ask for needles. Cannot get in pharmacy. Must go to SIS pharmacy. Don't know what that means. Pointed in a different direction. Looking everywhere for a SIS pharmacy. Return to ER doctor to ask where to buy needle. He writes me a rx to buy the needle and sends me outside. Go outside and look all around for pharmacy. Find a stand selling snacks. Ask security guard where to go. Sent outside of hospital premises to a pharmacy on the street. Order needle. Sent to another caja to pay. Pick up needle. Return to ER lab and turn in needle and get testing done. Wait outside of lab for a LONG time. During the wait, many random people stare at us (at me, the gringa) and some come ask me where I'm from and if I was very hurt by the death of Michael Jackson. Over time, everyone leaves. Most areas of hospital closing for siesta time. Go back to lab to ask how much longer. Find out it was already done, but no one informed us. Take results back to ER doctor. Talk with doctor. Done.

In the end, the kid was going to be okay. Everything came out negative. Still, the process was so ridiculous that it made me boil with anger. I was muttering my frustrations to myself under my breath--in english. Who knows how people actually get help. So many people need it. I asked a few personnel what it is like for someone who dying. Do they help them faster? Or haul their body around so they can get fingerprinted and stamped and sent everywhere but to a doctor?! The Adventist exponentially better, only the common people cannot afford its care.

Just a little FYI on health care in Iquitos.