A Tale of Two Missionaries

Random Photos!

2010-10-20T09:20:00.000-07:00

Here, Vivian is enjoying the sun and the water.

Last night we took Angel to the hospital to get some stitches. He was running, slipped and then cracked open his head. All is good though as you can see.

Bobi was found this morning in the wash bucket.

Half of the snake that almost bit Vanessa on Saturday night.

Marcos is playing, "Bobbing for Mangos."

Here we are fighting in front of the camera. This was our goodbye dinner with all of the office workers.

Matt is cutting some grass at the Church work-b.

Here we are hauling some wood for the new roof.

Stylin.
Ana Victoria, Vanessa and Gaby sporting their new dresses.

We got together with some other missionaries in town to have a goodbye party for us and the Blood Family (who are also leaving this Sunday).

I was chosen to play Peter in the little kids play because Marcos was in a mood.

Briggith is adding a new style to the Three Kings.

Marcos was NOT happy. Not even bribed would get him to do his part. Oh well.

Here, baby Vivian was NOT enjoying my beard.

The kids were enjoying the pool.

Kelly's sandals have seen better days.

Nelcy is angry at Matthew for who knows what reason.

Some good food straight out of our kitchen.

Milagros has her 15th

2010-10-20T08:56:00.000-07:00

This last Sunday, Milagros celebrated her 15th birthday. It was beautifully done, and Mili looked incredible. We had everything at POPPYS House, which made for a stressful day, but it turned out really nice. We had some dresses made for Mili's assistants, and the rest of the girls received some beautiful dresses from some previous volunteers who were here. It was a very fun night, and so much could be said, but time does not allow. Here are some photo's to help.

Here is Milagros with her escort, Jaime.

Here is, L to R, Sarai, Gaby, Milagros, Jaime and Nelcy, followed by the cake.

We made a little palm tunnel, with white sand and flower petals.

Here is a cute shot of Mili with her attendants.

Mili's mother, sister, brother and grandmother where able to attend.

Here, Kelly and I are with Mili and her date (Jaime wasn't all that jazzed to grab my arm...)

Here, Vivian was playing with some of the decorations.

Two beautiful people.

Vanessa was caught getting her hair done.

We had some people help decorate the sala. It looked really good.

Look out America, here we come

2010-10-20T08:48:00.000-07:00

This week has been really sad for us. The more we are with people and the girls, the more they talk about us leaving, which then makes everyone sad -a bitter/sweet departure. We have had some incredible memories, and those are what we will be taking in our minds, and hearts. It has been an incredible two years. We have learned a lot, and sadly, we have realized how much more we have yet to learn. God has taken us this far, and he will continue to guide our paths.

We are excited to be coming home and seeing family and friends. Here is our schedule:

Sunday, October 24, we leave Iquitos for Lima, Peru
Monday, October 25, we leave Lima for Chicago, IL.
Tuesday, November 2, we leave Chicago for Denver, CO.
Wednesday, November 10, we leave Denver for Portland, OR.
Sometime, the first of December, we will be heading to Walla Walla, WA.
Sometime, around the middle of December, we will be moving to Salt Lake City, UT. where we will be living

We are looking forward to seeing as many of you as time allows. We do not have cell phones at this point in time, so please communicate with us through our email addresses:

linfoot.aaron@gmail.com and the lovely kelly.linfoot@gmail.com

Hasta pronto!

Goodbye Herkie

2010-10-20T08:08:00.000-07:00

This last Friday we were able to head down the Amazon and say goodbye to our little monkey. He still does not have kids yet, which makes us sad, but his relationship is "productive." He seems to be madly in love with his partner -maybe he is on the five year plan as well. Here are some photos of our trip.

Here is the entrance to Monkey Island -there is no water, so we walked.

Here we are as a family. Herkie's girlfriend has some in-law problems.

Just like old times.

He was a little standoffish at first, but slowly, he came back.

I found a tree to hug...

Voting!

2010-10-07T15:38:00.000-07:00

Sunday, October 3, was voting day for Peru (not a presidential election year, but all the other things, like governor, mayor, etc.). Everyone is required to vote –yes, it is required. Those who do not vote are assigned a big fee: S/80. That is a lot of money down here—nearly a week’s wage for a blue collar worker who has a good job. In the past it was a fee of S/300!

Voters are those who are 18 or older and have a DNI (national document of identity). Wherever you register for your DNI you are assigned a place to vote. When people move to a different region, they are supposed to get a new DNI and thus be registered to vote in the new region. However, many people, in particular the poor people, do not get a new DNI when they move (it is a long and expensive process) and must travel back to where they are registered to vote.

And so, like in the time of Jesus’ birth, many are traveling to the land of their ancestors (ok, so just the land where their DNI is registered) to vote. Some have returned to Iquitos from Pucallpa, which was a 5 day boat ride for them—one way! Some have only traveled a couple days to arrive at their voting place. We cannot even imagine how long and how accurate the tallying of votes is. Nothing is computerized…at least in the jungle.

There is an array of candidates to choose from and you are supposed to put an X through their little logo. We tried to count the number of political party logos we saw all over town, and we began to get confused at about 15. Some of the logos we remember are: a rooster, a tree, a motor, a barley, the number “1000”, an outline of the state of Loreto, a little house, a big “V”, a parrot, “CARP”, etc. One candidate—who is the current equivalent of state governor (el presidente regional)—promises that if he wins, those who vote for him and have a certain sticker on their wall will get a new roof on their house. His party canvassers leave those stickers with many houses in poor neighborhoods. My thoughts on this bribery: Buddy, you’re already in office! Why not give them a good roof now, if that’s what you’re all about! Some candidates go to poor, isolated villages, bring cases and cases of alcohol and provided a drunken party for the whole village. Vote for me!

We’ve asked many people who they are going to vote for and no one has given us an answer besides “I dunno”. We have never seen or heard about any political debates, many don’t know what each party stands for…I guess you just vote for your favorite picture! Hooray for democracy!

Agape Feast

2010-10-07T15:33:00.000-07:00

This last Friday night, we decided to try something different with our girls. We had the dining room all set up, lights out, candles burning, table settings, flowers, etc… We had the girls come in, slowly, after a brief explanation of what Agape meant and what we were going to do. Surprisingly, they seemed to really enjoy it. Kathi, Kelly, Jessica and I served them food. We had a special dinner planned with fresh fruit, crackers, cheese, cinnamon rolls, yogurt and some awesome bean dip. After a quite dinner, we proceeded to have worship which then turned into an incredible foot washing –the four of us washed their feet. This was a really cool experience –one that felt very spiritual. We were able serve and individually pray with each girl and show them how important they are to us, but more importantly, how important they are to God.

Here Kelly is washing Susana´s feet.

Here we are eating, and Marcos is sleeping.

The girls are waiting for the food.

Meet Paolo –a Hemophiliac

2010-10-05T18:22:00.000-07:00

A week ago there was an announcement at church saying that a kid from our church, Paulo, had some blood loss and needed someone to donate a unit of blood (he is a hemophiliac meaning his blood clots significantly slower that other people). In the States people are more apt to donate when there is a need, however this is not the case down here. They were looking for O+. After a while, we had three volunteers –including one of our girls, Rosany. We decided to head into the hospital first thing in the morning. At 11pm that same night, I got a call saying the kid was doing worse and needed the blood right now.

I headed into the hospital (the Regional one, in Punchana!) and met the other two donors. Everyone got their blood tested, and one by one, rejected. One person was sick, another recently had a Hepatitis B shot, another, Rosany, was too short and skinny. They wanted to check my blood, but I told them I was 90% sure I was A+ –I should have said 100%. They checked my blood, and sure enough, it turned out A+.

Iquitos has recently done a campaign to get everyone vaccinated with the Hep. B shot, so that wiped out almost everyone we could think of. I was able to get a hold of Darin Blood (fitting last name) asking him if he could donate (he has O+). They ran some tests on his blood, and later the next morning he was able to give little Paolo (2 years old) a unit of blood. We found out that he was playing in the house, tripped and fell, and had been in the hospital now for 2 full days bleeding. The mother said that within two hours of giving Darin’s blood, color had returned to Paolo’s face and his mouth stopped bleeding –what a blessing from God. Monday morning, Darin went in again to donate 100cc’s (however it ended up being 250 cc’s–half a unit). This is not allowed in the States, but Darin’s blood again helped Paolo recuperate enough to leave the next day –Darin has some amazing blood.

Right now we are working with the family to get them to go to Lima to receive some testing so that Paolo can be on medicine to help him with Hemophilia. We found out that in Iquitos, 11 people have what he does (there are over 500,000 people that live here). Iquitos does not have a blood bank so the nearest treatment is in Lima. Once Paolo gets to Lima, gets testing to see which type of Hemophilia he has, he can return to Iquitos and receive treatment here (which will be sent via Lima).

We visited the family the other day and Paolo is again running around and regaining his strength. Sadly, every time he saw us he started crying; but I think part of that had to do with his cousin telling him that he was going to turn into a gringo (what they call us here) because of all the white person blood he had inside of him. His mother said that this was his 4th emergency visit to the hospital since birth and that he has received over 25 blood transfusions –Darin’s was the fastest acting. God is good. We are so grateful that God placed Darin here to help this kid out.

Neighbor kid playing with his bicycle...

We were all invited over for lunch. It was scrumptous.

Here Paolo is receiving Darin's super charged blood.

Here we have patient and donor. Paolo's mother, Shirly, is also present.

Swimming!

2010-10-05T18:18:00.001-07:00

This last Monday we were able to take the girls to a near by pool thanks to there being no school –everyone was apparently recuperating from the anniversary of our small town on Sunday. We recently came across a new pool/recreation center close by in Santa Clara. We took the girls, along with the Jensen and Blood family, and had a tremendous time. This place has two pools, one being a kiddie’s pool, a soccer field, volleyball field, trampoline, merry-go-round, swings, and water slides (it is all closed in and private). And to make it better we were the only ones. We all had such a blast (it was our first time going).

We will let the photos say the rest:

Protection with the motorcycle

2010-10-05T18:10:00.000-07:00

For a while now, my steering wheel lock has been a little loose. It is a bit of a challenge to get a Phillips screw driver down to tighten it, so I haven’t – big mistake. The other day, I was driving, quite fast, trying to catch Kelly in a motorcar. Kelly and Jessica had gone in a motorcar with a gentleman that made me feel nervous –they both felt the same way. At the end of the Santo Tomas road, I slowed down for the traffic light and quickly realized that I could not turn to the right. I slammed on the brakes because my balance was quickly thrown off. I stopped the bike and tried turning the steering wheel to the right, but was unable to (this same feeling has happened about 4 other times). After some jostling around, it finally gave and I had a free range of motion.

After driving slowly and finally arriving at the office, Moses and I quickly found the problem. The screws that held the steering wheel lock in place had come loose and would at random prohibit me from a full range of motion –this is DANGEROUS. Earlier, I had been driving fast and could have easily gotten in a crash. The times that Kelly has been with me, we could have easily crashed. A gentleman helping us said, “Most crashes happen for no apparent reason. Just malfunctions in the bike.” God protected us and continues to from harm.

I really feel that God’s promise that he gave in Jeremiah 29:11 rings true:

‘“For I know the plans I have for you’, declares the Lord, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”’

God has been with us. His blessings, although sometimes hard to notice, are bountiful. Only he knows what our future holds. Only he knows how long we are meant to live. Now comes the hard part of truly trusting and giving our entire life to him and leaving it all up to his discretion.

Support for the org

2010-09-28T09:46:00.000-07:00

Kelly and I have been volunteering for People of Peru Project for a little over two years. Currently, the organization is struggling financially more than normal. Donations are down, but the financial commintments of this organization still exist. In this past month we have felt the financial strain more than ever. Many workers are paid bi-monthly, but there was not enough to pay them on the 15th of this month. This last week, the majority of our food (which was less than normal) was purchased on credit. Many other bills and expenses, throughout the entire organization, are having a difficult time makeing ends meet. We have all been praying fervently for God to supply, and we feel as though he will. We would like to ask you to join us in prayer for this organization. The power of prayer is incredible. We would like to encourage you to check out the organizations website at peopleofperu.org. If you would like to donate money, there are directions on the website of how to go about it.

With much love,

Aaroncito and Kelita

Baptisms

2010-09-28T09:35:00.000-07:00

Our newest girl, Meri, asked to have her baby dedicated...the same day she got baptized!

The changing rooms to prepare for baptism.

Above and below are the beautiful shots of when we were at the baptism.

Nelcy
Lots of people came to the afternoon event.

Before and after shots.

Pictures for your viewing pleasure

2010-09-28T09:22:00.000-07:00

Our little Union Church had a potluck. It was really fun! Potlucks are not common down here, so it was exciting. It went so well we are having another one next week!

Gabi (sporting her new glasses) with Mili at the church potluck.

Sarai´s 6th birthday party. We made our own cake since there´s virtually no money. Turned out nice!

As a monthly routine, we kill cockroaches in our storage rooms in the kitchen. We put on the face masks so we don´t die. Above, Meri, Jessica and I are smiling. Below, we have our killer game faces on!

Above and below are pictures when Aaron had to hold Marcos because he was throwing a fit. Here are both reactions.

A typical Aaron and Marcos shot. Marcos does anything and everything that Aaron does. He even dresses like him when possible.

Parenting 101: A Punishment Dilemma

2010-09-23T12:30:00.000-07:00

The past two years have been quite a lesson on parenting. We have been trying, through much trial and error, to figure out ways in dealing with so many different situations that it is exhausting. However, we have learned many things and have improved in many ways with God’s help. Just recently, a rather unique and comical situation arose in which some learned skills were put into practice.

One lovely morning our neighbor, Dora, stopped me as I passed her house. She wanted to show me something in her backyard…a very unusual request. Now please understand, my fellow Americans, that a typical “backyard” in our community is nothing like suburbia. We are talking about a very tiny plot of land “enclosed” (much too generous of a word) with entirely rotten pieces of wood, extremely rusted pieces of metal, and other miscellaneous items. At Dora’s, the one good fence is, well, ours. The “storage shed” is actually an outhouse with a drainage ditch going out to the front, joining the rest of the sewage along the road. The large leaves from the trees overhead (which have been known to house snakes) fall and rot on the ground year-round. Dora, in particular, is one to not clean up the leaves in her backyard, thus all is a thick blanket of rotting leaves all over, mixed with trash, scraps of random things, and other things that belong in a junkyard—appearing to have no use whatsoever. This environment is habitat to many snakes, rats, iguanas, etc.

As Dora and I stepped carefully through the “backyard”, a most unpleasant sight awaited us. There in her backyard were a couple items that belonged to one of our girls. I will attempt to be somewhat discreet and say that these two items were the same, very female-related and rhyme with “pluddy thunderwear”. Conveniently located on the other side of the good section of fence is a spot where some of our girls wash their clothes. Apparently, much to my horror and rage, somebody didn’t want to wash a couple things and decided to chuck them over the fence…and gross out our neighbor. I thanked Dora for showing me and promised to return soon.

At the house, I found all the girls eating breakfast. Conveniently locating myself directly across from my main suspect, one of our newer girls, I shared my findings—and not so discreetly—with everyone. I mentioned my surprise at such an act from one of our girls and wondered aloud who it could possibly be—all the while staring at “her” for the majority of my speech. All sat wide-eyed and shocked while she sat smiling sheepishly. Having my subtle confession, I took her over to Dora’s house.

En route, she tried to make up excuses and I calmly informed her that I didn’t care to hear them at all. The “items” were there and she had to make it right. Anything else was not worth listening to.

I will try to briefly recount the comical conversation with Dora and the girl:

By the “items” in question, I ask Dora to explain how she found them. From there,

Me: Dora, how does that make you feel to see something like this in your yard?
Dora: It makes me feel bad, señorita..
[girl tearing up in guilt]
Me: It would make me feel bad, too, if someone used my yard as a trash can. You know, this is a problem all of us women face. What advice do you have for our young lady to learn to be able to wash this type of thing?
[We converse about washing techniques because we can’t just throw away everything we stain. That then leads to some scary stories from Dora about washing at the river during “that time” and having chameleons and snakes and eels and other creatures notice and scare her to death; once one tried to climb in her boat. All stories that I would never imagine as a sheltered gringo with machines or at least sinks to wash clothes in. We all bonded in our story hour.]
Me: (to anonymous girl) Do you have anything you would like to say to our good neighbor, Dora?
Girl: I’m sorry. I won’t do it again. Please forgive me.
Me: Thank you so much. Now that you have apologized with words, how can you apologize in actions?
Girl: (looking at me wide-eyed) An extra job???
Me: What a great idea! So, after breakfast you can come back with several big black trash bags and clean Dora’s yard for her! Thank you so much! What a wonderful way to apologize and help our neighbor at the same time!
Dora: Gracias, señorita!

I had a hard time keeping a straight face the whole time. Cleaning that disgusting backyard was the perfect punishment, and it was “her idea”. Ha! She ended up doing a great job and has never done anything like that since. She cleaned for a long, long time. She and Dora are now friends, too.

Seriously, though, it was also a great opportunity to show an example of loving discipline to one of our neighbors in the community. The norm here would be to yell at them, tell them they are stupid and disgusting and then hit them…and probably never get around to making them do anything about it in the end. The experience brought out a lot of good…and made me laugh.

Rat Video

2010-09-16T16:06:00.000-07:00

Rat Killing

2010-09-16T16:02:00.000-07:00

A few nights ago, while tutoring Rosany in the sala, we saw a rat crawl in through a hole in the screening! Interestingly, Aaron had changed the screening, having noticed a hole earlier, the day before! The rats had chewed a hole through our screen! If they can chew a hole through that screen, they can figure out how to chew a hole through the kitchen screening and then we’ve got the bubonic plague on our hands. The rat must die!

Within a few minutes another rat crawled through the hole! We had two somewhere back behind the TV. We no longer have any cats, but our little white dog, Sucia, loves to chase, kill and possibly eat rats and mice, too. Rosany, Lauro and I, armed with brooms, buckets, Sucia and a license to kill, we trapped the two rats under the buckets (when I say “we”, I mean they did the trapping and I did the screaming). We weren’t sure how to kill them, but we took a chance on taking them outside and releasing them with the dogs and us ready for a fight.

In the end, the dogs finally got them both. It was exciting.

Pictures

2010-09-16T15:54:00.000-07:00

A wonderful family that invited us over for lunch today. Flor was in Aaron´s second loan group and has had great success in creating a business with the loan. Her husband supports her with her business ideas and is very loving to her and their children. We will miss them greatly.
Flor´s daughter and their kittens...the future rat hunters.

A beautiful sunset a few nights ago. Pictures never do justice.

A Gift from Loca Tara

2010-09-16T15:49:00.000-07:00

We recently received an awesome package from a short-term volunteer that came a few months ago. She was known as "Loca Tara" because she is...loca. The girls were excited to get handmade t-shirts that had a random piece of fabric shaped as Peru with a button sewn at the part that marks Iquitos. They proudly wear their new shirts almost every day. Thanks Tara!

Final Meeting -- Loan Group 2

2010-09-16T15:40:00.000-07:00

It was a beautiful Sunday afternoon for the loan group in Santo Tomas. After spending over a year together, group number two (8 ladies) completed their program. It was a beautiful and emotional meeting. We had Teresa (a lady from group 1) supply the fried chicken and rice -it was riquísimo. It is sad to see them go, but I have high hopes for their future (and their kids). God has been working, and continues to work, in Santo Tomas!

Here we are eagerly awaiting the scrumptious food.

Here is the loan group with most of their family (they were invited as well).

The Return of the Queen

2010-09-16T15:37:00.000-07:00

Kathi is back! We were very excited to welcome her back, along with Kristi and Matthew, her two youngest children. Later they will reunite with the rest of their family, but in the meantime, they have come back with joy and goodies from the US-of-A. The girls are very happy to have the presence of the very tall and very blonde family and so are we! Now we have some more time to do blogs!

Meri’s Birthday

2010-09-12T12:31:00.001-07:00

Meri had her first birthday party here at POPPYS House. She turned 16 on September 2. We celebrated with some cake, soda and singing of “sapo verde” (which is their joke of pronouncing “happy birthday”). The tradition is to smash an egg on their head, but we recently have been replacing that flour, instead. It is much less stinky. Here are a couple photos:

Here is Meri with her adorable daughter, Vivian.

Our pet peeve…opossum ≠ fox

2010-09-12T12:28:00.000-07:00

Our night watchman, Lauro, was able to kill an opossum during the night. When we have chickens, they will eat the chickens. Some grow to be quite large. They have a horrible stench.

Well, a pet peeve of ours is that the girls keep referring to this animal as a zorro which means “fox”. Opossum says zarigüeya in our dictionary, and besides there are no foxes in the jungle. We kept trying to correct the girls, explaining what a fox was and that they are much more beautiful than opossums. They insisted that this was a type of “fox”. We were getting frustrated, feeling that it was such a disgrace to the fox species, being grouped with a stinky opossum. The girls were frustrated because we are the ignorant gringos that don’t know their language as well as they do. Oh, to all the foxes out there, we are sorry. It is a hopeless case…just like a previous case we had last year trying to convince them that iceberg lettuce was lettuce and not cabbage. Oh man, that is a different story, but replace fox/opossum with lettuce/cabbage and you know exactly how that conversation went as well.

Jessica, our new volunteer!

2010-09-12T12:26:00.000-07:00

Jessica Ewing came to POPPYS House late August (a few weeks ago), as a student missionary through Southern Adventist University and as Kathi Jensen’s friend. We are so excited to have her here. She is going to learn a lot of Spanish in her time here, especially since there are now very few of us volunteers out here now (anyone interested?). It is so wonderful to have her help out here. She came very unexpectedly, at least, for Aaron and me, but it has been a good surprise.

She’s a hard worker and has been learning the ropes of our life here at POPPYS. We look forward to our last six weeks here with her. The Jensen family will be back in a few days, so we will have to get some final training in for our incredible group of volunteers. We can’t believe our time is almost up! It has gone by fast!

Fire Fighting

2010-09-12T12:15:00.001-07:00

We’ve had some excitement this past week. Aaron has been able to brush up on his fire fighting skills. Some guy decided to burn his back field –which is adjacent to ours –but the wind decided to kick up at the most inopportune time. With the help from some of our girls, along with the neighbor kids, we were able to put out the fire –our dog Bobi got his paws burnt because he too wanted to help with the fire.

This last Saturday, we again had an opportunity to help put out a fire –but one much closer. Apparently some of our neighbor’s kids were playing with matches when their straw mattress caught on fire. This then led to the roof catching on fire (most everyone has dried leaf roofs) which we happened to see. I ran over to assist where I could but it seemed out of control and moving towards the next house, and then on to our chicken coop. We were finally able to get the fire under control showing us that only God stopped the fire from moving on. It was a little stressful. Thanks be to God that no-one was hurt and only the families roof was lost –apparently their propane tank, which was surrounded by flames, was making some weird sounds (another blessing from God that it did not explode).

Here are three of our girls, Nelcy, Mili, and Gabi assisting in the firefight.

Our field is on the left, theirs on the right.

Trying to get the boots off of Gabi proved to be challenging.

Here you can barely see the flames shooting up finishing off the roof. Our building is what is pictured to the left.

When all was said and done, here is what was left of their roof.

Paramedic Practicum—Our terrifyingly exciting ride to the hospital

2010-09-12T12:12:00.001-07:00

Our girls went on a youth campout on the weekend that would have been Labor Day weekend for you gringos. Nine of our 11 girls attended the campout at Delfines with the district D youth. Aaron used the organization’s pickup truck to take our girls and their things out there (about 10 kilometers beyond the outskirts of town). We were ready for a very relaxing weekend with Olga, Meri and Jessica, having just sat down to supper, when the phone rang…

Mama Teresa was at the campout and called us to pray because one of the teenage boys from our Union church was unconscious. What?! I wasn’t sure if I had heard correctly, and so I asked if it was a joke or a medical emergency. It was the latter. Thanking God that, with no 911 type of system out here, we still had the truck—a much quicker means of transportation than the motofurgon—we raced out to Delfines. En route, we tried to find out what had happened and only understood something about how he accidentally got hit hard in the chest—directly on his heart—with a heavy metal object, complained that it hurt, then passed out.

When we arrived—after many “please hurry!” calls—the situation did not look good. Tony, maybe 15 or 16 years old, was unconscious, and when he lapsed into consciousness, he was incoherent and in excruciating pain. Two of his friends came with us to help carry him, comfort him and explain to the doctors what was going on.

It was a somber car ride as the boys in the back worried over their writhing friend while Aaron and I were trying to decide which hospital to go to: the closest hospital or the best quality hospital, the Adventist hospital on the opposite side of town? We also had to decide which of the only two roads to take into town: the slightly more out-of-the-way main highway Quiñones, which is wide (4 lanes) and more developed, or the more direct route along Participación, which is narrow (2 lanes), heavily populated and more dangerous? As we came upon the fork in the road the situation turned for the worst in the backseat and we decided—closest and most direct!

Tony’s two friends were panicking, crying for their friend—“Come back!”, “Breathe!”, “God, no!”, “It’s all my fault!”—like a death scene. He had stopped breathing. Aaron floored the truck while I jumped into the backseat, desperately trying to remember all the CPR classes of the past. He wasn’t breathing, but in all the panic, I couldn’t tell if there was a heartbeat. I am not a medical professional (so those of you who are, please don’t judge…) but all I could think of was, “It is better to do something than nothing! He doesn’t have time to wait! Go!”

In the front seat, Aaron laid on the horn (swerving around buses, motorcars, dogs, people, cops, stoplights, etc.) and yelled back to me, “15-2!” I began to shove his chest, yelling the countdown in my panic. I gave him mouth-to-mouth and kept pumping while yelling out to God to clear the road for Aaron and keep this kid (and everyone else in our path) alive. Still unsure if he heart was pumping, I figured it was better to error in hitting him relentlessly for no reason—and hopefully wake him up!—and say sorry later, than to error the other way.

After a minute—or a lifetime!—he gasped for air and opened his eyes. His eyes moved everywhere, but seemed to not be able to focus on anything. Now I just wanted to keep him awake. I began asking him if he knew where he was or who he was with. After a bit he was able to barely breathe out one of his friends’ names. They tried to encourage him through their fearful tears. I told him to stay awake or I would start beating him up again. Then I tried to calm him and all of us by assuring him that God was in control and that we would be okay, we were almost to a hospital, he would be taken care of by doctors, etc. He looked at me and nodded with hope and fear. I felt his pulse and I calculated about a million beats per second.

The lines are long and numerous in the public hospitals. I had always wondered how they dealt with a real emergency situation where a victim can’t wait in 10 different lines, get copies, stamps, initials and fingerprints from every corner of the hospital. I figured I would soon find out.

Iquitos Hospital threw open their gate as our truck careened in to the emergency entrance. By then, Tony had become unconscious again, but he was at least breathing. They rushed out with a gurney and Aaron pulled his body out of the truck. As they rushed him into the hospital, my adrenaline rush collapsed and I began shaking all over and practically hyperventilating in my “What just happened!” shock. The two friends came over to comfort me and tell me everything would be alright and to not worry. I couldn’t help but thinking, “Hey! I was comforting you guys just moments ago!” Boys…gotta be all “manly”.

If you’ve read this far, I believe you have an idea of the thoughts and feelings we had at the moment. We were so thanking God we had made it and ready to stick around for the long haul when, after about 10 minutes, someone came out to tell us that the doctors said Tony had been “really stressed” and that he was calming down and would be ready to go home within the next 5-10 minutes.

Our thoughts were, “What?! That’s it?! No tests?! No…nothing? Did a doctor even see him? Did they just wheel him inside the door, give him a lollipop and a gold star and tell him he was a trooper? Did none of the previous events seem a bit worrisome to anyone else?” Within 10 minutes, Tony slowly walked outside to us and his family, who had been notified and arrived by that time, and was regaining strength. He announced he wanted to go back to the campout.

Needless to say, for us Americans, it was a shock that the doctors didn’t begin an onslaught of tests and monitoring of things. After a while of waiting around, someone brought word that a doctor wanted him to get an x-ray to see if maybe there was some internal damage. Since it was late Friday night (about 10 pm) we were sent to a clinic on the opposite side of town.

When we arrived, Aaron and I waited outside for about 15 minutes then they all came out again. The doctor didn’t want to do anything because he was fine and sent him with a couple shots of painkillers and penicillin, just in case he needed it later. That was it. Nothing happened.

With an oddly surreal feeling, we all returned to our respective locations, whether it be home or the campout. Yes, Tony returned to the youth campout (they were having an all-night prayer vigil and fasting). Aaron and I came home about midnight and just…just…had no idea what to think. We began looking around in the Merck Manual Lisa had left in Peru and tried to guess what had happened—maybe a heart attack? I guess everything on the hospital end was cost effective. Congratulations.

We just found out that a couple days later, Tony did get an x-ray at the hospital and they found he has an enlarged heart. Aaron and I don’t know if it was a previously existing, but unknown, condition or if the heart enlarged as a reaction to the whole ordeal (like, maybe if it was a heart attack). I guess we will find out in due time.

The end.

Photos!

2010-08-23T17:41:00.000-07:00

We were bored. Kevin kept running into the street, so I tried to distract him.

Marcos now wants to do the exact same thing...

Kelly thought she had taken a cool, live shot of a wiley gecko. She later found out it was dead. It crawled out of the ceiling, stopped on our window, and then died in this exact position. Weird.

We have had a lot of fog lately in the early mornings. Then it quickly burns off to 95 degrees.

Rosany and Ermelinda performing a special musica at church.

This is Walter. He is our favorite motocar driver.

Here we are all walking to church. Bobbi too.

This guy and his wife made this awesome boat. Now they are just waiting for the water to rise so they can get it going.

A group from Florida posing with their ¨manly¨ tools. They helped us with our library.

This lady devoted some incredible time with one of our girls, Meri, helping her learn how to read.

Here the group is putting in the ceiling skeleton in our library.

Here Marcos was asked to smile...

Here is our little church´s choir. They performed marvelously.

Here we were able to get a family shot with Wilson and Danika. Sweet.

Here is baby Vivian. She is adorable.

Sarah and Mama T with the little kids.

And finally, a snake eating a frog. Cool, huh? Ironically, soon after this photo was taken we killed the snake as well...

Week of prayer at Mama T´s

2010-08-23T17:38:00.000-07:00

Last week was week of prayer. Each night we went over to Mother Teresa’s house for songs, bible study and just communicating with each other. We made it optional for the girls, and it was so cool to see just about every girl going, and even participating. Our group already meets every Sunday and Wednesday, and it seems to be growing. There seem to be quite a few more boys attending. I am not sure whether I am happy (because I am always the only male present), excited (because they are interested in God), or frustrated (because now they are interested in my girls). I suppose I will just wait and see.

No gas in Iquitos

2010-08-23T17:35:00.000-07:00

The last week we had a problem finding gas. The propane tank that we had was empty, and we could not find any more in Iquitos. Technically there were a few tanks left, but they were selling for really high prices. Everything we do involving the kitchen is performed with propane. We were able to cut down a few trees and tear apart some old tables in order to have firewood, so everything worked out –although a little inconvenient.

The first rumor was that the businesses selling propane were not selling in order to form a strike against the oil companies. Then we found out the real reason was that the river was too low. Apparently gas comes by barge from Lima to Iquitos via Pucallpa. Pucallpa is on the river, and the river was so low that the barges could not make it up to deliver the gas in Iquitos. The barges were running aground. The gas shortage lasted only a couple of days thank goodness. We are now back on track.

Check out the water level now

2010-08-23T17:29:00.000-07:00

For those of you who have been here, or who have seen some of our earlier blogs, you would understand the photos. The water is extremely low currently. I would venture a guess that the water is roughly 20 ft. lower than it is during high season –which is a huge difference. When you walk down to the river, you see a nice green film covering the water. The locals love the water level due to the ability to catch fish easier.

Here are some photos:

We usually take the girls swimming the the right of this photo. This is all under water normally. It is really low right now.

The water is nasty and green. There is a pig farm up river. The water shows the results.

Special Music at Church

2010-08-23T17:25:00.001-07:00

My sister has been working with the little kids since her arrival the first of June. Monday through Friday she has been going over words, numbers, activities and songs in both English and Spanish. They had been practicing for the first and only performance which happened to be at church. They sand three songs, I have peace like a river, When you are happy and you know it, and Deep and wide. The kids actually performed rather well.

Here are some photos:

Rain, rain, rain

2010-08-23T17:11:00.000-07:00

This last Saturday, we walked to church with the preconceived notion that it would not dare to rain. I do believe even Kelly ventured to say, “I do not think that it has EVER rained on us going to church,” which were some famous last words. Church started out normal. The clouds started bellowing in from afar. The sky turned from a silvery grey to a tar black. The wind came first and then came the torrential downpour. The wind blew so forcefully that a house in front of the church actually collapsed during the storm (fortunately no one was inside).

Our church only has one wall –well technically it is only half a wall (it is not quite finished). Our little congregation stopped the service, crowded into the middle of the church, and hoped to wait it out. It was at this point in time that Kelly politely reminded me, “Hey Aaron, I think we left the back windows open.” Note: when the back windows are open during a rainstorm, water enters our room like a raging river.

I quickly located a scooter, jumped on, emptied my pockets of anything valuable, and headed for home. Scooters have absolutely no traction in mud. I skidded all over the road. I went from nice church attire to soaked and dirty in a matter of seconds. I rushed home was more like it. I pulled out the keys from my pocket, but due to my pockets now being full of water, it took a few seconds to get them out. After finally opening the gate, I ran to our room. I finally got inside, threw off my shoes, ran to the back window, and wouldn’t you know, everything was completely dry. There was hardly even a midst coming through the windows. The heavens were letting loose, but nothing entered our room. Everything that I had done was in vain.

I quickly changed; tossed my soaking clothes in the shower, put some new clothes, put on my boots grabbed my raincoat along with 5 others, and headed out the door. I decided to walk balk due to the condition of the road. By the time I got to within 5 minutes of the church, the rain had stopped, and everyone was walking back. Again, everything had been done in vain.

Here Kelly and Tatelyn pose for a shot after finding it easier to walk barefoot in the mud that in shoes.

Here is the house that collapsed.

Here are some ladies singing ¨Showers of Blessings.¨ It was rather comical.

Sarah Leaves Soon!

2010-08-16T13:09:00.000-07:00

It´s been awesome having Sarah here with us. Here is a picture of her with all the girls on her last Saturday night here. She leaves on Wednesday.

Photos!

2010-08-05T17:12:00.001-07:00

Gabi, the girl in the very back, is one of our newer girls.

Sarai decided to teach Marcos after recently learning to ride the bike herself. Adorable.

Kelly got up the courage to FINALLY hold the baby. Although, she was tecnically forced to do it.

Here is our newest girl, Meri. She is the proud mother of Vivian, the girl Kelly is holding in the above picture.

Another adorable photo of Vivian.

Here we have the famed Kevin. He is overly eccstatic to be through with his charcoal treatment.

This is a giant bass that someone gave us. It tasted sooo good.

Our dog Lolita is being bathed. She actually loves it.

Again, Vivian in the camera. She was making the funniest faces when the camera flashed.

Here is a great family shot while my mother was still here.

Reunited at last. It was great having my mom here.

Here is another of our new girls, Briggith (on the right).

Sarah got caught working in the kitchen with Kristi.

My mom was so kind, she helped us out with some of our clothes. Reminds me of the good ´ole days when I was a kid.

Sarah is conducting class with the little kids.

Peruvian Independance, July 28

2010-08-05T16:52:00.000-07:00

Last year we were unable to celebrate the holiday because of the H1N1 scare, so we really had no idea what to expect. This year, with all swine flu scares aside, we went on as scheduled. The girls all participated this year. The school had each class choose some sort of theme, and then march around the plaza here in Santo Tomas. They decided to celebrate it on the 26^th and proceeded to do nothing on the 28^th –the only reason we can think of is because they wanted a longer vacation. A two week vacation was in order for the school, so the teachers decided to celebrate everything on a Sunday, as opposed to the actual holiday, Tuesday, in order that they did not have to come back to work during the week…

Here are some great photos of our kids.

L:R Ana Victoria, Gabriela, Sarai and Vanessa

Here are two of our girls, Briggith and Milagros (two middle girls in the photo).

Marcos is one of the Spidermen. I am almost certain he is the one upfront, totally releshing his role. You can just tell by his walk.

Here were some adorable kindergarteners performing their military role incredibly.

Youth Campout

2010-08-05T16:34:00.001-07:00

This last week some of our girls participated in a youth campout for Iquitos through the church. They left on a Tuesday and came back on Sunday. My sister was also able to accompany them for a few days –she came back early due to some food poisoning… I am not exactly sure on the numbers, but I would say close to 150 kids came from all over Iquitos –quite a feat considering there was an $18 entrance fee per person (which is a lot of money down here).

The days started early, 5 am, and then continued on until about 10:30 pm. The girls came back exhausted. They girls seemed to enjoy their time getting to know other Christians around Iquitos as well as feeling a closer connection to God. Here are some photos:

Here is a group shot.
My sister Sarah with Maybeth.

A swim race in the pond.

Some sort of game. No idea, but it looks fun.

Last but not least, the bathrooms. They were just holes in the ground. Sarah could not get over it.
Here, Sarah got to take a photo with a famous christian musical artist named Evelyn (far left).

Held Up

2010-08-05T16:31:00.000-07:00

So, last week I was headed to an ATM to withdraw some cash. I was fairly focused on my objective, so I ignorantly ignored the two men standing outside the glass door. As I approached, both men pulled out their guns, pointed them up at me and said, “Sir, can you wait 5 more minutes to use the ATM?” Like anyone else in that sort of situation, I replied, “Well of course. Take 10 if you want.” The gentlemen were changing over the cash in the ATM’s. I should have noticed the bright yellow armored truck parked out front, or how they were both in uniform, Kevlar vest, talking on their radios, etc….

The Epidemic

2010-07-29T14:08:00.001-07:00

That´s right, an epidemic bullied its way through our household...and the greater metropolitan area of Santo Tomas and Union. What was it? I tell you: PINKEYE! It started out simple (perhaps an eyelash in the eye?), then exploded into mayhem over the next several days. Within the week all of our girls and workers and volunteers (a number of about 25) had pinkeye except for 4. We soon discovered that most of the community had it as well.

Now for the interesting part. Everyone had a magical remedy that worked, supposedly. Here is a brief rundown of the various suggestions given to the girls in various encounters:

Antibacterial eyedrops: My first suggestion, but proven ineffective.
Achiote leaves: My personal favorite due to its natural charm. Google achiote and you will discover this plant has a huge list of medicinal properties, including a phlem that relieves conguntivitis. Way to go, Amazonia. We have one in our back property. Still fairly ineffective, unless healing takes about 5 days.
Eye ointment from the pharmacy: My next suggestion, which felt like it should be effective since it burned...but still didn´t work any miracles.
Breast milk: Yeah, one of our workers tried that while I was investigating the proper application of the eye ointment. I asked what the white liquid was, and found out it was from our currently nursing mother. Weird.
Iced Tea: I think it is just the cold that eases the irritation, but they are convinced that it is only the manzanilla tea and the one that smells like Fruit Loops. Still didn´t work very fast.
Coconut milk: Better to drink, I think.
Lemon: By this time I had it and felt hopeless to any remedy. I let the girls try whatever natural thing they wanted to try. Squeezing fresh lemons into the eye (just a drop) sounded painful—and was confirmed to be painful! I decided to wait and see if it worked before I would try. Good thing I waited—pain for nothing.
Urine: A motorcar driver suggested it and I vetoed it…but I think Keyla tried it later…if she did, it didn´t work.

We have all recovered, or almost recovered. In the end, it was viral so it didn´t really matter what remedy we used. The next time you get pinkeye, just take a look at this list and take your pick! Enjoy!

Aaron´s Birthday

2010-07-14T16:07:00.000-07:00

Aaron turned 24 on July 10. The girls egged him, as is tradition, made him some cake, sang to him and then we all went out for chicken and rice at our beloved Kikiriki. It was an awesome night.

Monkey Island and Boras with family

2010-07-14T15:55:00.000-07:00

Due to the great holiday, Teacher´s Day, we took advantage of no school to go touring with family. Here are some pics of our trip. We have visited this Bora tribe several times and are friends.

Walter (a common name here...I believe it comes from the Cocama dialect) and me.

Us with the Boras. Arthur is shirtless...because he traded the shirt on his back for an item. Classy.
Michael and his needy "friend". Pretty funny. Wouldn´t recommend crutches at Monkey Island.
Herkie´s fiancé, Ariana. She has the same coloring as our son! Just less hair.
Aaron with this cute baby Choro!!! Pooped on him, but still so cute!!!!

4th of July

2010-07-14T15:50:00.000-07:00

The missionaries in Iquitos area threw a 4th of July pool party. It was awesome. Potato salads, sandwiches, chocolate chip cookies, iced tea...it was like being at home!!!

Arrivals and Departures

2010-07-14T15:32:00.000-07:00

We apologize for the blog drought. We have had many people come and go in the past month and we´d like to give a breif review.

Good news: THE JENSENS ARRIVE!!!

Bad news: The Jensens depart...

Good news: The Jensens will come back!!!

We never officially introduced the Jensens. This particularly tall, blonde family arrived fromFlorida early May to replace Casey and Lisa. Kathi has been here along with her three

children, Michael, Kristi and Matthew. They are an awesome family and we are privileged to have them here. Just last week they returned to the States to register their eldest son for school. They will return late August with husband/dad, David. We are looking forward to their return.

Good news: Richard is awesome and helped us a lot in the past many many months.

Bad news: Richard departed. Bye Richard!

Good news: Arthur came and even got a nickname! Arturo Maduro

Bad news: Arthur left. ¡Chau Arturo Maduro!

Our dearly rugged friend, Arthur Ordelheide came to visit for about 6 weeks. He brought so much enthusiasm and joy…and cinnamon rolls! All day he practiced Spanish with the girls and the neighbors; every trip into town he said “hola” to every driver and passenger he saw; every afternoon he tutored math to the neighborhood kids and played soccer; every Friday he “got his roll on” making cinnamon rolls for Friday dinner.

Good news: Aaron´s mom and sister came!!!

Bad news: Becky already left...

Good news: Sarah is here until mid-August!!!

The girls will forever remember Becky´s joy and contagious laugh. I will help them remember it. Hahahaha! ;) Sarah is continuing the children´s program, teaching them some songs and words in English. Nice, Sarah!
Good news: Wilson and Danika arrive!! They will be here until early August.

Llerly gets a bike

2010-06-23T14:40:00.000-07:00

Thanks to a recent donation, Llery was able to receive a form of transportation -a brand new Lifan 150cc motorcycle. He was completely surprised. At one point his eyes teared up and I was pretty sure he was going to cry. It was awesome. Llerly has been working hard on helping out with University expenses, studying, and trying to support his family as well. This will be an amazing help for him.

Llerly is currently finishing his first year of University studying Psychology. He is currently undecided as to what field in Psychology, but he is pushing towards Forensics. He is a hard worker and we expect big things from this young man. Thank you all for your support.

Missionary Dinner

2010-06-23T14:28:00.000-07:00

This last Monday, a group from California invited roughly 70 missionaries and their families to come to a dinner just for them. It was incredible to see so many people, with the same goal, together. It was a blessing hearing people speak about their missions, why they are here, how long they are here, etc... God is working in Iquitos through so many different missions.

You would think that living in jungle town most of the missionaries would be acquainted in one way or another, but we met so many other people. Each family received a bag from target loaded with a plethora of goodies -items you cannot find down here. We received food, zip-lock bags, seasoning, and more. After a nice dinner, there was also a raffle for some house hold items. We felt so honored to be thought of by people who do not even know us. God is so good!

Here someone just won a bag full of zip-locks. Awesome.

Here we are all seated and eating the good food along with all you could drink passion fruit juice.

Photos of the Week

2010-06-23T14:10:00.000-07:00

Here we are having fun with the camera at a school function.

Kevin got a hold of some papaya. mmmmmm....

Arthur and Richard making pizza in the kitchen.

Some cute kids whom were not camera shy.

One of our little girls, Sarai, after finishing a school program.

Here we are at a local pool having some fun with Sarah and Arthur.

What was once a punishment turned into a fun group activity - moving bricks.

Some of the girls hanging out. (L:R Kevin, Keyla, Vaness and Milagros)

Here we are, Ermelinda, Arthur and me, waiting for the anniversary party to start.

Our most recent acquisition, Nemo. Adorable.

50 Year Anniversary

2010-06-23T14:02:00.000-07:00

Our nice little local school celebrated its 50^th anniversary. The festivities started on Tuesday and then ended late Saturday night with a concert. The concert was somewhat of an irony. At one of the parent meetings, we were all asked if we could pay S/.0.50 per family (about 20 cents) in order for a psychologist to come and work with the teachers on how to deal with their students better. After an outcry for paying such a high price for “working class parents,” the idea was quickly dropped. Twenty minutes later the parents all voted on having a big named local band come and play on Saturday night for a cover charge of S/.2.00 per person (4 times more money). And who says that education is not valued?

Our girls participated in the volleyball and soccer tournaments as well as some competitions in their core subjects. Nelcy, one of our girls, got the highest score on the math competition –she ended up winning a water pitcher and six cups… We were very proud of her. Our girls also participated in some native dances. It was an enjoyable presentation and a fabulous reminder on how imperative education is in this society.

Here are some of the secondary girls participating in a native dance.

Here are three of our girls participating in a popular peruvian dance, ¨La Marinera.¨

Some people from the local government came out and performed a dance.

Everyone was fighting for shade...

Kelly´s Missing Front Tooth!

2010-06-23T13:58:00.000-07:00

June 8 did not start out as planned. It was our anniversary and Kelly woke up at 5 am frantically saying her tooth had disappeared in the night. I responded like a good ‘ole loving husband would at such an hour, “Kelly. Please just go back to bed.” Now is a good time for a side note. Kelly frequently talks in her sleep.

Kelly continued the conversation with, “Seriously, Aaron. I am not joking. My front tooth is missing.” Sadly, I cannot say that I was convinced –it still was really early and I had just been awakened. Finally she turned on the light and I was able to see the whole thing pan out –a slight chuckle was heard. Kelly then proceeded to tell me that when she was in 3rd grade, she chipped her tooth and had to have a filling. Fortunately, that filling lasted 17 years; unfortunately it decided to come out on our anniversary…

Kelly went into the bathroom to look in the mirror and figure out what to do, but she left me with the following instructions, “Aaron. Find my tooth!” My initial reaction was like, “Riiiigggghht.” I said a quick little prayer and without much ado, I was able to locate the rest of her tooth.

The rest of the day was spent running to the dentist and trying to figure out what to do next. Kelly was a great sport about it, but it sure was hard not to laugh when she opened her mouth. We were fortunate to hear about a dental group coming down from Denver, CO. the next week. Kelly was able to get a filling done, and it turned out beautiful. One could never tell the difference with her front tooth. Thank you God for working the problem out for us!