Uncle Sam Heads Home

Sam, or Uncle Sam as we call him, is in charge of all the building projects down here for the People of Peru Project. He lives in Arizona, but when needed, and funds depending, he comes down here. We were able to meet him for the first time this last week as he came out to oversee and assist with the construction of the roof on our second building. The girls are very fond of him. He takes the time to talk and hug each girl. He has a big heart, and the girls are his weakness. Sadly, during his time here, he became sick (on Christmas day), and needed to head home for a more rapid recovery. We were able to all load up on the bus and see him off at the airport.

Hope you get better soon Sam and come back to visit!

Christmas With The Girls

We decided to kick off the holiday season with a big ‘ole decorating party in the Sala. We were able to find an affordable imitation tree, which is something the girls have never had. As we placed the rest of the decorations, the girls’ faces continued to grow. There were smiles all around.
Christmas Eve, the girls went out with the group of volunteers that are here, and were able to walk around the main plaza showing off their new clothes. The girls were taken out by the group and each given some money, and then allowed to go shopping with the group. Tradition is to go to the plaza on Christmas Eve, and walk around showing off your new clothes –the girls looked amazing and were incredibly happy. After they were all done walking, everyone came back to POPPYS house for a midnight dinner (also a tradition). Christmas here is celebrated at midnight. After dinner, we went into the street with the girls and lit sparklers. Everyone was out of their houses lighting fireworks and enjoying themselves.
Christmas day, the girls and we administrators, all went over to where Casey’s parents were staying to open up stockings. With much help from Skip and Terry (and the kids from Great Lakes Adventist Academy), we were able to throw together a bunch of stockings (a tradition we wanted to start) and presents. Sadly, Kelly was up all night Christmas Eve throwing up (and this continued all day Christmas), and Lisa and Casey needed to take a friend to the hospital (and were there 9 hours). It was most definitely a long day, but the girls had an amazing day. We all will remember this Christmas.

A Christmas Musical

A few days ago, we were able to take all of our girls out to a Christmas play downtown Iquitos. A nice couple from our church purchased some tickets for us and our girls to go and watch this performance –we actually found out that they were singing in it. We were able to catch a ride in the organizations bus, and arrived about an hour early so that we could get some prime seats. The musical was at a Catholic school which had a beautiful performance center with freezing air conditioning –we all thought that it was going to be at a typical, no air conditioning facility, hence no jackets or long pants. Everyone was freezing all the way through the play.

We snatched up some beautiful seats four rows from the front. The play was a great depiction of a non-believing tourist who needed to come around into having more Christmas cheer. He eventually caught on to what God’s gift was to him. The live music was well done and beautiful. The girls thoroughly enjoyed themselves and received a great message out of the ordeal –we even were able to stop and get some snacks!

Spirit of Giving

A local program here in town, Caja Maynas, meant to bring a little holiday cheer to the less fortunate, decided to adopt the girls out here at POPPYS house. The organization typically only does things for groups of 100+ kids; however, one of the ladies involved (who goes to our church) was able to get the organization to make an exception for our 18 kids.

The group brought out roughly 25 people, a clown, presents, hot chocolate, a sound system and a beautiful holiday cheer. The clown was able to get the girls involved, go outside of their comfort zone, and provide a fun time for all ages. It was great to see these people treating our girls so well and the effect that it had on our girls was incredible. The hot chocolate was even good –it is still challenging to guzzle down a cup of HOT chocolate when you are already sweating, but we managed.

The group brought down a plethora of fruit cake, which although is not popular in the states, down here, it’s up there with soda. Everyone eats this stuff. I have to admit however, that it does taste slightly better than the stuff that I have had in the states. This group did so much for our girls. Not just with the money that they spent, but also with the emotion and cheer that they brought. We are very grateful.

Marcos Has A Birthday

This last Friday, December 26, Marcos had his second birthday. We tried celebrating it Friday, however the girls were all pretty bummed because we had to say goodbye to Uncle Sam at the airport, and were not in the celebrating mood. We decided to have the fiesta (party) on Saturday, in the afternoon. It was much more enjoyable, and Marcos even decided to wear the cake. With his cake, he seemed to resemble Santa Claus (Papa Noel in Spanish). Take a look!

Here is a video clip of him as well:

Feliz Navidad!

More of our Baby - Herkie Buku

School´s Out!

Right now the girls are out of school for the summer. We only had one girl, Nelcy, graduate, and that was from 6th grade. She will be headed off to secondary (high school) next year. The current schedule is fairly lax until after Christmas –we wanted the girls to get a chance to chill and take it easy. Once we are through the holiday season, the girls will be required to have English, Math, Personal Finance and Reading (where most all of them are currently behind), and then they will be able to have electives of music (voice and guitar), trade (making crafts, etc…), gymnastics, soccer, fishing, swimming (some of our girls do not know how), and occasional outings. Both of us couples will be using money that has been donated by you, our supporters.
These next few months (of summer) will allow us to catch some of the girls back up to speed scholastically and teach them some new hobbies. We are trying to cut costs by pulling on community members, using some of the People of Peru staff, and personally teaching some of these classes. It actually works to our advantage to involve more of the community, and other staff, in having the girls establish, or re-establish, some new friendships. This will hopefully help some of the girls push outside their comfort zones as well. This is an amazing growth opportunity for our girls. Thank you for your support.

New Puppies

Princesa, one of our 3 current perros (dogs), decided it was time in her life to have some more puppies -without any consultation with us, or herself for that matter (it wasn’t her decision either). Fortunate for us, two will be leaving. We will be keeping the black and white one whom we currently call vaco (vaca is cow, but it’s a feminine word, so we changed it to vaco, masculine in context, to help his self esteem…). Here is a photo of Rosany, one of our older girls, holding the three little pupps –the brown one, whom we call gordito (little fatty) is the other male, and the brown and white one (female without a name) will be heading to live at the office. New

A Trip to Quistococha

A week ago there was again no school, so we decided to take the girls out to a beautiful lake about 20 minutes from our house. Quistococha is a park that offers swimming, volleyball, soccer, fishing, a zoo (ranging from a freshwater dolphin to snakes and piranhas), and relaxation. We brought some sticks for fishing poles, and fatty worms, and went fishing for hours.
The girls are incredible with catching fish. Without bobbers, there is a knack in snagging fish. The girls have all the finesse, where as for myself, I lose about as many worms as the girls catch fish. The “hot spots,” as I found out, were next to the bank and trees –which of course the girls knew. I would have preferred to bring a quarter stick of dynamite…We brought home a bountiful of fish. Kelly was even able to snag one –it was the smallest thing ever, but her first ever!
When we were about to leave, Lisa made a bet with a guy that she could swim out to some bottle floating in the middle of the lake. She could not find Casey to swim with her, so I was the next best option. I have never been a distance swimmer, but was able to sidestroke my way out and back. By swimming out to the middle (roughly 300 ft), and back, the guy then gave Lisa his pack of cigarettes, and stopped giving them out to some little kids that were hanging out with him (this guy was actually a teacher and these were his students…). The purpose, and result, was great, but maybe next time we can challenge them to basketball or golf…

Ermelinda's Quincinera

Last weekend, Ermelinda turned 15 and that is the biggest deal ever.  A quincinera party is like a wedding.  As you can see, she had her ladies, or her "damas", and they each had a partner.  It's a big party with formal processions and food and invitations.  The whole town was watching, even though most had to wait outside.  It was beautiful and wonderful to see one of our girls get to be a princess for a night.  

Casey´s Parents Arrive

Friday morning, after having their first flight delayed, Skip and Terri Hann arrived in Iquitos. They came from 3 feet of snow and 15 degree F weather in Michigan to our jungle humidity. Even though our weather turned rainy and cooled down significantly, they were still shocked by the heat. They have been hanging out at the house with all of us and getting the full experience of daily life at POPPYS House. They have been spoiling us with gifts from afar, such as disposible diapers, toys, peanut M&Ms, medicines and so much more. It is so wonderful to have someone from home come and get a taste of the life here. They bring a fresh energy and interest to our daily routine. More are welcome to come and visit! We are looking forward to some of our family and friends to come down and experience Iquitos. We love you!

Fishing With The Girls

Fishing is something that I have never been interested in. Growing up, fishing was not my thing. No matter how much I tried, I was unable to catch fish. I even failed to catch fish at a fish farm (to this day I do not know how that is possible). With that being said, the girls here adore fishing. They enjoy the entire process - from sticking the worm into the hook to snagging a delectable fish. I have actually gotten into fishing with them (Casey is also a die-hard, catches everything, fishing kind of guy). Here are some photos of us going fishing with the girls in a river (one of many tributaries to the Amazon) 2 minutes from where we live.

I was actually able to catch a fish. I should stop at that sentence, but I wont. My fish was a catfish...grrr... and a baby at that. The smart thing ate through 3 of my worms before I was able to snag it. It was my only one of the day. You can actually use these as bates for larger fish (which I tried), like piranhas, however something ate my poor little fish before I could snag anything.

You can also see how the sunsets here can be breathtaking.

I have actually found fishing to be quite relaxing, and although it is still not my ¨cup of tea¨, it is a wonderful chance to spend time hanging out with the girls and doing something that they enjoy. Casey´s parents just brought down some more loors and fishing items (I am not fisherman savvy), so hopefully these will make my fishing life easier...

Herkimer Mbuku, our baby

Here´s our first baby.  He´s a baby dusky titi monkey and he´s a cute little dude.  He´s got colorful hair--a white forehead, red neck beard, brown body, and blonde tail.  We named him Herkimer Mbuku in honor of our nephew.  No one can pronounce his name, but it´s okay.  He´s a needy little dude and just wants to be held.  We don´t have pictures with us right now, so we´ll post those a different day.  But here is a little video of us when we take him on a walk.  

The Rest of Our Trip

The rest of our trip was awesome.  We had some interesting bus rides and met a lot of interesting people from all around the world.  We crossed the border into Arica, Chile.  We were there for a day and climbed up a big rock hill that overlooked the city and ocean.  It was a steep climb, but there was a cool little path ready to take us.  Here´s a picture of the view from the city.  By the way, we ate and McDonalds and it was one of the most expensive meals we ate on our entire trip.  Strange from and American perspective.

Below is a view from the top of the hill, looking out to some more coast terrain.  The rest of the place was a giant sand desert.  Very arid and dry, but fascinating.
After Arequipa, and before Arica, we took a bus up to Puno, alongside Lake Titicaca.  The lake sits at an elevation of 12,500 ft and gets rather chilly.  We were frozen, but got some alpaca beanies to warm us.  We took a tour to some of the island on the lake and here are some pictures of that.  We also went to the floating reed islands and saw how the people live there.  Needless to say, the live off of tourists...taking us on rides in their reed boats and selling trinkets.