Random Photos!

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

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

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

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!

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

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

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!

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

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

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

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.