Llerly gets a bike

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

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

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

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!

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!

Here comes the library

Richard Griswald is an incredible individual. He seems to be a jack-of-all-trades and always looking for something to do or someway to help. He took it upon his shoulders to raise money for our library. Projects down here seem to go in phases. This will be the last phase of our second building. All of the walls are up, the stucco is on, and now we are going to be putting in the ceiling along with the windows. There is a group coming down in August that has offered to outfit our library with some electronic gear. We are very excited to see this developing –it is a whole lot safer.

We just recently received a steel door and some steel windows. We will post more photos later.

Goodbye Texas Trio

We lost a special group of girls recently. Princess, Pricilla and Bianca were down here, short term, assisting with our program at POPPYS House. They made an incredible difference and helped improve our program for the girls.

Princess was in charge of our primary girls, going to school with them, helping with homework, running study hall, etc… Priscilla was in charge of all the little kids out here, working with them at school (mornings), teaching them in the afternoons, and a bunch of other things around the house. Bianca was in charge of stuff at the office pertaining to Angel -everything from schooling to studying to reading.

We have been very blessed with volunteers down here. God seems to come through, sometimes last minute, but he always has a plan. We are grateful for the time that these girls put in down here. We will definitely miss the good times.

Singing the ABC's

This is just absolutely adorable. The little kids, Monday through Friday, go through their numbers and the alphabet. They also take time to go over colors and other words –everything being in both English and Spanish. Here is a great video.

Some Recent Photos

Marcos with some adult boots.

Casey was showing us how to make an ugly face. Apparently this is so detestable to his wife, that she actually gets scared when seeing it...

Kevin and I heading down a slide. I don't know who had more fun, him or I.

La senorita Kelly with Princess. They really getting into whatever they are doing.

Marcos playing in a cocha (puddle) after a big rain storm.

Here is Kelly with Susana's mother. She is a cute old lady.

Here are the boys on a "man-date." It is over looking Belen.

Here is Llerly (pronounced Jerly) with Kelly and I. He is our sponsored University student. He is studying Psychology.

Here is Kevin after a near fatal crash. I had to run and get my camera real quick though.

Here we have a change of rolls. Our cook, Auralia, is equipped for grounds, and our groundsman Juanito, is ready to cook lunch.

Kelly received a surprise birthday party from one of the loan groups. It was awesome. They all pooled money so that they could make a cake and have some soda.

Some of our adorable kids.

Kevin comes to visit

Kelly and I were blessed to have a friend come and visit us for a week. Kevin has been volunteering for “Touch of Love” in Pucallpa, Peru. Kevin has been here in Peru as a missionary since July of 2009, and prior to his departure back home to the Northwest (woop, woop), he decided to come and say hi to us way up North. It was great seeing someone from back home (Kevin and I went to school together since grade school at Rivergate Adventist Academy) as well as someone that understood the Peruvian culture. We had some fun times. Thanks for the visit Kevin!

CNI loses again

We went to a professional soccer game a few days ago, and again, our local team lost. Oh well, it is all about the experience, not about our local team, CNI, winning –we are just about at the bottom out of ALL the Peruvian teams. It was fun (and crazy) seeing the fans get into it, seeing how good the players are and seeing all those police. Check out the photos.

Here the security stands. A few even have shotguns...

The stadium is awesome.

Group shot -minus Kelly and me.

Meet Sasha

We have been blessed by the presence of Sasha (far left in top photo) these past few weeks. Sasha decided to take some time off and come down and volunteer for about a month (she is from Iowa). Her time is just about over, but we have been very fortunate having her here. She has been helping out with the little kids daily (assisting them at school as well as teaching them English), helping out with our primary girls, and anything else around the house. The girls have quickly attached themselves to her, and vice-versa. Thanks so much Sasha! Volunteering is such a cool experience. If anyone is interested, long/short term, contact us!

Teresa gets contracted out!

A group from Washington State University (School of Nursing) came down and decided to try out Teresa’s hamburger stand. They contracted her out for dinner, and then, liked it so much that they again rented her services a few days later as well. Teresa was the first graduate of the micro-loans program (she is now self-supporting without the need for a loan).

Her business is doing well, and she is looking to expand with one more stand. We are so excited for her. Here are some photos! Here the students from WSU gave manicures and massages to our girls.

Here, Teresa is making the orders with Kelly running the ticket counter.

The WSU group decided to purchase ice cream for everyone. Nice.